Henrietta Lacks Thesis

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Reflecting Upon The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Elie Wiesel once said, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” Today, physicians are required to disclose any risks or information about a medical procedure or prescription given to their patients. There are set rules in order to be ethical in the medical and experimental fields, but in the 1950s, the rules of ethics did not completely exist. What did exist was a strong, racial segregation against African Americans. An audacious, African American woman who died of cervical cancer was tampered with without being told, yet changed the medical and science fields forever. Her name was Henrietta Lacks.
The …show more content…
She lived on a plantation and worked for a slave owner. When she grew up, she was no longer a slave and had children. When she began going to Johns Hopkins Hospital for her cancer treatment, there was a “colored” part of the hospital for African Americans. Every African American that went through slavery and segregation should be venerated as gallant people, because they went through awful things. Hospitals used to kidnap African Americans off of the streets at night to use them to experiment. Not only did Henrietta deal with the stress of not wanting her family to know about the cancer, she also had to deal with racism. Not very many people would have been able to go through what she did. The author of the book, Rebecca Skloot, described Henrietta and her family during segregation very deeply, which made me emotionally connect to each of …show more content…
I learned about all the vaccines and breakthroughs that the HeLa cells generated, that her cells have grown so much that they could wrap around the Earth a few times, and what cell culture is. I liked how the author incorporated not only the personal, family side to the story, but also the scientific facts. I believe that the main reason for Skloot incorporating the scientific side of things is because the Lacks family was still not fully aware of what happened and did not know what the doctors did to her mother. So, the author wanted to apprise them, since no one else did. I now also look up to the author of this book, Rebecca Skloot, because she did what no one else wanted to, which was to educate the public about Henrietta Lacks and her family, and the unthinkable acts of the doctors and scientists. Not only did she educate the public, but also the Lacks family, which most likely meant a great deal to them. I strongly believe that there needs to be more people like Rebecca Skloot.
In conclusion, I loved The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It made me realize that back in the time of Henrietta’s life, it was so hard to live a happy life for African Americans. They could not even go to a doctor for medical assistance without worrying. The book also reminded me to always do what’s right and stand for what I believe in. This nonfiction gave me a roller-coaster of emotions: happy,
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