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Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

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“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is a nonfiction book set in a time period when marginalized races and classes often received inadequate health care as a result of social prejudices. As the book is set in the 1950s, these difficulties in obtaining sufficient health care can be explained through historical context. Social issues such as racial prejudices and poverty among minorities are generally accepted as the main causes for this unequal medical treatment. Although these issues are not as prominent as they were in the 1950s, certain ethnic groups and classes still experience difficulties in accessing health care. This paper explores this issue in a modern context by examining the effect of the Affordable Care Act (PPACA) on different

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Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

...In the non-fiction novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta died of cervical cancer in 1951, a few months before her death samples were taken. Those samples became an important search for the cure of the cancer she had. She encounters health risks that are dangers and increased her chances of illnesses. She faces poverty, race, and a low quality education. These factors cause internal and external conflicts on a great ‘magnitude’. Henrietta Lacks was an unprivileged woman who came from a low economic status. She had inconveniences getting seen while she was ill due to the fact that she had no transportation and without a way to get seen by a doctor her health declined. Her nutrition was at a standstill. Do to...

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Summary Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

...Two sets of research will be covered in this paper first we have prevaricator, John D’Agata with his research article Lifespan of a Fact and second Rebecca Skloot book/research, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The purpose of this paper is to detail the day and night between the two pieces, the literary analysis and the overall attitude felt by the authors. Starting off from a quote out of D'Agata's article "I'm not writing for public office. I'm trying to write something that's interesting to read.” That's D'Agata summed up in one sentence. He is merely writing for entertainment and sport. Not interested in the truth in the least but how he can bend the truth to fit his story so it sounds good. While on the other hand Skloot gives a nice story in chronological order. Not only that but she gives us history of the time period in which she is investigating. She also gives a nice genealogy of Lacks life and family. This is something not found in D'Agata's research, this is actual facts about the person being researched....

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Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

...In the text “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Chapter 25 ‘Who Told You, You Could Sell My Spleen?’” written by Rebecca Skloot. There is a common central idea of informed consent can avoid conflict between doctors and patients. Without having the legal system involved conflict between John Moore and Dr. Golde could of been more severe and not of help future people in the same situation. All of their issue and legal problem could have be avoid if Dr. Golde was honest with his patient, John Moore. If Dr. Golde informed Moore about what he was planning to do with his cells and Moore consented then they could of set up an agreement about the possible financial situation and this deceitful situation could've been avoided. Also informed consent...

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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Summary

...The Immortality of Ethics in Science and Medicine Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” raises a number of ethical questions through the story of a woman whose immortal cells have made and continue to make an incredible difference in the world of science and medicine. A doctor’s duty is to treat and care for patients, regardless of their race, ethnicity, and income level. In the mid-1900’s, however, few medical professionals practiced medicine in this manner. Low-income, black patients who could not afford a high standard of care were forced to seek care in facilities which often viewed them as research subjects. Henrietta Lacks sought medical care in the Johns Hopkins University Hospital where she began painfully deteriorating...

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...In the book The “Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” By Rebecca Skloot, it told a story about the life of Henrietta Lacks as well explain the issues of tissue collection. Tissue collection causes lots of issue like the arguments of ownership, privacy, consent, and compensation. Tissue collection causes arguments over ownership. People tend to have a strong sense of ownership when it comes to their body. One main and important point in the debate over ownership of human biological materials Scientist feared that if tissue samples including blood cells were considered patients property then researches taking them without getting consent would be charged with theft, which would “create chaos for researchers”. They were worried that “patients would block the progress of science by holding out for excessive profits” which could possibly happen. When tissue are a part of your body they are clearly yours but when they are taken away from your body things get questionable, because of this it causes an issue in tissue collection...

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Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

...Part 2 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks focuses on the research done on Henrietta’s cells after her death. There were negative and positive impacts because of the research done on the so called HeLa cells. The Lacks family didn’t trust white doctors anymore because of the lies they had been told. Day initially refused permission to perform an autopsy, but he was deceived into believing that it would benefit his family. Society, at the time, didn’t see this as an issue. These 10 chapters in part two of the book have a lot of unethical experimentations performed because of the testing of the HeLa cells. The main point of the reading was to reveal to the readers how disreputable doctors were back in the 60’s because of how they treated black patients. All of this ties back to Henrietta’s cells as well. The scientific studies performed with the...

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Summary Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

...The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a very inspirational story written by Rebecca Skloot. This story takes place from around the year 1951, when Henrietta was admitted into John Hopkins Hospital for cervical cancer, until 2010, the year of publication. This book discusses the medical, ethical, and legal issues that occurred throughout the case of HeLa cells. I believe we read this book to learn of the importance of consent and knowledge before beginning our journey in the medical field. The story is centered around Henrietta Lacks, a poor, African American tobacco farmer, who was born in 1920. She resided in Clover, Virginia, with her husband, David Lacks, and five children, Lawrence, Elsie, David, Deborah, and Zakariyya. Later, in search...

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...important member who unknowingly impacts other people in many ways. In the 20th century biography The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot utilizes the rhetorical strategy of emotional appeals to reveal that physical, mental, and emotional pain bring effects that can greatly impact and separate families. The physical and emotional pain that people feel due to cancer devastates the sufferers as they divide from their family. In Henrietta’s case, she desires to keep her sickness a secret so she does not upset anyone or cause a large fuss: “No sense upsetting anyone over something she could deal with herself”(Skloot 31). Skloot builds despair as she emphasizes how Henrietta does not communicate to her family about her cancer because she does not want to cause any trouble. On top of Henrietta’s desire to prevent her family from worry, the cancer embarrasses her and seems difficult to speak of. Consequently to Henrietta’s choice to remain quiet about her fatal illness, her family expresses even more surprise and anxiety when they actually discover what Henrietta goes through and how she suffers. Even though Henrietta stays strong and tries to tough out the pain without her...

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...Henrietta Lacks was a poor tobacco farmer and mother of five who died of cervical cancer at thirty-one. Lacks spent most of her last year being treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. George Gey was the Lead scientist of tissue culture at Johns Hopkins, and his goal was to successfully grow a line of immortal cells that could continue to live outside the body. In 1951, shortly after Henrietta’s death, Gey realized Lack’s cells were what he was looking for and could help him in his research. He then ordered for additional cells to be removed from Henrietta’s tumor, which he then grew and distributed without the consent of Lacks or her family. This was very inappropriate and disrespectful. Rebecca Skloot author of the book: “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” describes these actions and treatment of the...

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Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

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...The existence of Rebecca Skloot as a character in her book, The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, provides meaningful and necessary dialog to the story that is an insight to the physiological tolls that the cells take on Deborah and her family. In “Medical Records”, it becomes clear that Deborah still does not trust Rebecca with the medical records. Deborah asks, “Who you working for? Hopkins?”, and Rebecca responds by reminding her of their last conversation they had over the same topic. The suspicion that Deborah has for Rebecca is a massive aspect of the story that displays the fears and skepticism that the Lacks family has because of the times that they were wronged by John Hopkins. Shortly after the argument cited above, Deborah agrees...

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