Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot And Antigone Research Paper

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“To be interested in the public good we must be disinterested, that is, not interested in goods in which our personal selves are wrapped up”(Mead). A constant debate arises between the importance of one’s own good, against the importance of the public good. Every person finds their own way of achieving the good life considering these two sides. Whether private good appears to be more important than the other, or whether a balance between the two must be reached; there is no right or wrong. Between the readings of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot and Antigone by Sophocles, having a balance between public good and private good in life conveys the impression of a typical good life. With that, It is essential to create a balance …show more content…

Always thinking about satisfying private good can start conflicts towards the higher power, or even cause consequences when rules are broken. An example of this presents itself in Antigone. After much conflict and war throughout the city, Creon, the new king, provides a decree for all the people to follow. He administers this decree with no intentions of being harmful, but only to bring peace to a city that has recently suffered. Although disagreement arose from this decree, simply following the rules given would have been more beneficial. Going against public good in this case led to multiple deaths of family members who could have been saved if public good was considered. One person’s selfish actions resulted in more suffering instead of peace throughout the city, when the only intentions of Creon was reconciliation. The benefits of public good continues in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, when the constant reproducing cells of a woman, Henrietta Lacks, became life changing in the medical world and the world of many cancer patients. “...her cells went up in the first space missions to see what would happen to human cells in zero gravity, or that they helped with some of the most important advances in medicine: the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization..”(Skloot). In this instance, although Henrietta and her family were striped of their rights immoraly, it resulted as an outbreak for the public good. Sharing these cells with the world has brought a good life to other people fighting cancer, advanced cancer research, and continues to affect the public positively today. The good of Henrietta and her family were dispossessed, nonetheless, the good of the world will prosper forever. Clearly, the value of public good is important when trying to reach peace and when lives are being saved because

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