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The legacy of henrietta lacks thesis statement
Hela cells discovery
The legacy of henrietta lacks thesis statement
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The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks A legacy is something that makes a significant change in future generations, that is passed down to future generations whether it would be an idea or an object. The names of those people who passed these legacies remain unforgetten. Although, not everyone’s legacies are recognized until someone decides to publicize that information. Unfortunately, one of those people is Henrietta Lacks, who made an incredible legacy. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a nonfiction novel by Rebecca Skloot is about Henrietta Lacks who made a legacy that significantly improved modern medicine in the world. Her cells which are cancer cells that replicated around her cervix made cell testing easier, since her cells were able to reproduce in a lab and the other cells died. These were called HeLa cells but no one knew …show more content…
She would be able to provide information to Rebecca about her mother’s life. Many of the records of Henrietta’s appointments were hidden. Until Deborah shed light into her mother’s treatment, none of the records would have been known. She gave these records to Skloot. “At several points during the day, Deborah said I should take her mother's medical records into my hotel room when we stopped for the night” (203). She also wanted her mother’s story to be under the correct name. The world only knew Henrietta for her cells and they would only know her as HeLa or Helen Lane. However, no one knew anything about Henrietta Lacks. “‘First, if my mother is so famous in science history, you got to tell everybody to get her name right. She ain’t no Helen Lane. And second, everybody always say Henrietta Lacks had four children. That ain’t right, she had five children”’ (170). Her mother’s stories and the medical records are the contributions that Deborah made in order to make her mother’s legacy
All I can say is amazing information of your glorious and late Henrietta Lacks. This incedible women bettered our society in ways no common human could understand at the time because of how complex this matter was and still very much indeed is. I know there is much contraversy with the matter of how scientists achived immortal cells from your late relative, and I do strongly agree with the fact that it was wrong for these researches to take advantage of this incredible women, but I know it is not for me to say nonethless it must be said that even though it was wrong to take Lacks’ cells when she was dying sometimes one must suffer to bring joy to the entire world.
An abstraction can be defined as something that only exists as an idea. People are considered abstractions when they are dehumanized, forgotten about, or segregated and discriminated against. The scientific community and the media treated Henrietta Lacks and her family as abstractions in several ways including; forgetting the person behind HeLa cells, giving sub-par health care compared to Caucasians, and not giving reparations to the Lacks family. On the other hand, Rebecca Skloot offers a different perspective that is shown throughout the book. Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks describes the trials and tribulations the Lacks family has gone through because of HeLa cells and shows how seeing a person as an abstraction is a dangerous thing.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells the story of Henrietta Lacks. In the early 1951 Henrietta discovered a hard lump on the left of the entrance of her cervix, after having unexpected vaginal bleeding. She visited the Johns Hopkins hospital in East Baltimore, which was the only hospital in their area where black patients were treated. The gynecologist, Howard Jones, indeed discovers a tumor on her cervix, which he takes a biopsy off to sent it to the lab for diagnosis. In February 1951 Henrietta was called by Dr. Jones to tell about the biopsy results: “Epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix, Stage I”, in other words, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Before her first radium treatment, surgeon dr. Wharton removed a sample of her cervix tumor and a sample of her healthy cervix tissue and gave this tissue to dr. George Gey, who had been trying to grow cells in his lab for years. In the meantime that Henrietta was recovering from her first treatment with radium, her cells were growing in George Gey’s lab. This all happened without the permission and the informing of Henrietta Lacks. The cells started growing in a unbelievable fast way, they doubled every 24 hours, Henrietta’s cells didn’t seem to stop growing. Henrietta’s cancer cell grew twenty times as fast as her normal healthy cells, which eventually also died a couple of days after they started growing. The first immortal human cells were grown, which was a big breakthrough in science. The HeLa cells were spread throughout the scientific world. They were used for major breakthroughs in science, for example the developing of the polio vaccine. The HeLa-cells caused a revolution in the scientific world, while Henrietta Lacks, who died Octob...
Henrietta Lacks is not a common household name, yet in the scientific and medical world it has become one of the most important and talked names of the century. Up until the time that this book was written, very few people knew of Henrietta Lacks and how her cells contributed to modern science, but Rebecca Skloot aimed to change this. Eventually Skloot was able to reach Henrietta’s remaining family and through them she was able to tell the story of not only the importance of the HeLa cells but also Henrietta’s life.
Most people live in capitalist societies where money matters a lot. Essentially, ownership is also of significance since it decides to whom the money goes. In present days, human tissues matter in the scientific field. Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, shows how Henrietta Lacks’s cells have been used well, and at the same time, how they have been a hot potato in science because of the problem of the ownership. This engages readers to try to answer the question, “Should legal ownership have to be given to people?” For that answer, yes. People should be given the rights to ownership over their tissues for patients to decide if they are willing to donate their tissues or not. Reasons will be explained as follows.
In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, author Rebecca Skloot tells the true story of the woman who the famous HeLa cells originated from, and her children's lives thereafter. Skloot begins the book with a section called "A Few Words About This Book", in which a particular quote mentioned captured my attention. When Skloot began writing Henrietta's story, one of Henrietta's relatives told Skloot, "If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that's dishonest. It’s taking away their lives, their experiences, and their selves" (Skloot). After reading that quote, an array of questions entered my mind, the most important being, "Do all nonfiction authors take that idea into consideration?" Nonfiction is a very delicate and
HeLa cells were one of the greatest medical inventions that came about for the scientific field and yet the woman behind this medical feat is not fully remembered and honored. Her cells and tissue were taken away from her without consent and more than that, she was exploited for being black and not questioning what the doctor was doing. Her family suffered through countless years of agonizing pain in which they were misinformed about where and what her cells were being used for. Yes, HeLa cells changed the way we view medicine today, but only at the cost of creating one of the greatest controversies of owning ones body.
The Belmont Report identifies three core principles that are to be respected when using human subjects for research. The three ethical principles are: respect for persons, beneficence and justice. In the case of Henrietta Lacks each of these fundamental components are violated. The consent that Henrietta provided was not sufficient for the procedures that were conducted.
In Rebecca Skloot’s novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the author investigates the origin of a line of “immortal cells” used for research on various diseases. The cells were immortal in the sense that they continued to multiply long after the person from whom they came passed away. This quality made them priceless in the field of medical research. The cells were called HeLa, after the person from whom the cells were initially harvested-Henrietta Lacks. As Rebecca learns more about Henrietta and her family, certain injustices in the field of public health are made apparent.
Prior to the successful cultivation of HeLa cells, failure was met with every attempt to grow cells in culture. This roadblock became the focused work of Dr. George Gey of Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins served most of the impoverished black community seeking care in the immediate Maryland area. This provided a goldmine for medical research that was justified by its “generosity” and Samaritan charter. Henrietta Lacks decision to seek care for her cervical cancer unknowingly designated her as arguably the single greatest contribution to science and medicine. After the realization that human cells had finally been successfully harvested and reproduced, Dr. Gey immediately distributed the cells and his methodology to anyone who asked. As the explosion of research on HeLa cells swept across the scientific community many of Dr. Gey's colleagues urged him to publish or patent cells to take credit for his for work but his dedication to the work rather than the credit prevented him from doing much publishing if any at all. The implica...
Due to her cells being taken there have been a number of amazing discoveries and cures in the medical field, but it also brought pain and suffering for her family. The Lacks family was not even aware of Henrietta’s cells being taken, let alone that they were still alive and used in science. Of course Henrietta’s cells have helped to maintain sustainability within the human race by allowing there to be cures and medicine for all types of diseases and sickness; therefore the her cells being taken can be seen in a positive light.
Her mother died when Henrietta was four during childbirth. Her father soon moved the family to Clover,Virginia and Henietta lived with her grandfather. Henrietta’s cousin, Day Lacks grew up with her. They soon fell in love and married in 1941 and had two childeren. Henrietta was fourteen and eighteen at the time when she had each of her childeren. She would soon after being to expericence a pain for a year which she described as a “knot on her womb”. John Hopkins University hospital where Henrietta went to be examined soon discovered her cervix was fostering a purple lump of malignant cancerous cells. Her doctor ,Dr. Howard Jones took a sample of the cells to send in for testing. No sign of anything out of the norm was very noted after childbirth or even months prior to Henrietta's synomptms emerging. Dr. Richard TeLinde and Dr. George Gey had both been working in an attenpt to grow cancerous cells and cervical tissues in a lab enviorment outside the human body but had been met with failure. Despite the violation of patients rights however the surgeon that Henrietta worked with back at Johns Hopkins for treatment had taken a sample of both cancerous and normal cervical tissue before putting tubes of radium into her cervix as treatment. The samples were kept secret from Henrietta and she never knew her cells would be used in experiments. Henrietta’s cancerous cells were nicknamed HeLa and as they grew so did
While doctors and scientists were making millions of dollars through HeLa research, Henrietta’s family was living in poverty. Lawrence Lacks, Henrietta’s firstborn child, says, “Hopkins say they gave them cells away, but they made millions! It’s not fair! She’s the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance?” (pg.168). Someone who disagrees with this standpoint may argue that scientists had been trying for years to develop the perfect culture medium and had a much more hands on experience with the cells (pg.35), therefore, they should be receiving the earnings from any outcomes the HeLa cells may produce. While the scientists were in fact the brains behind the scientific advances, the family should be acknowledged on behalf of Henrietta Lacks. These successes in science would not have been possible without the origin of the cells: Henrietta Lacks. For some of the family, the primary focus was not even the profit. “Since they gone ahead and taken her cells and they been so important for science, Deborah thought, least they can do is give her credit for it.” (pg. 197). Here, Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s fourth born child, makes it clear that her primary concern is getting her mother the recognition that she deserves for her
In the novel The Immoral Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the author tells the miraculous story of one woman’s amazing contribution to science. Henrietta Lacks unknowingly provides scientists with a biopsy capable of reproducing cells at a tremendusly fast pace. The story of Henrietta Lacks demonstrates how an individual’s rights can be effortlessly breached when it involves medical science and research. Although her cells have contributed to science in many miraculous ways, there is little known about the woman whose body they derived from. Skloot is a very gifted author whose essential writing technique divides the story into three parts so that she, Henrietta
..., the name of Henrietta Lacks needs to be introduced to the world since she is the woman who generated HeLa cells, because the name of the person who generated HeLa cells is still unknown. By doing this, her family will be honored and respected by others.