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Essay On Henrietta Lacks

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The question of ethics has been an ongoing issue. Two things that are very important in medical ethics is morality and religion because this gives the rights to the physician, or doctor and also the relationship between the patient. In the article, The Code of Medical Ethics, a physician/doctor must recognize the responsibility to their patients, as well to society, to other health professionals, and to themselves (Riddick).
Most people do not know who Henrietta Lacks is, or know how important her cells are. Unlike most cells, Henrietta’s seemed to be immortal; her cells never died. They lived and grew continuously in culture (Skloot 40-41). Henrietta’s cells, known as HeLa cells, were taken without her consent when she was being treated for …show more content…

In “A Readers Guide”, Skloot ask two questions, “Should people have a right to control what’s done with their tissues once they’re removed from their bodies? And who, if anyone, should profit from those tissues? (Skloot 5). Luckily The Oath of Hippocrates got introduced. “The Oath of Hippocrates, a brief exposition of principles for physicians' conduct, dates from the fifth century BCE. Its statements protect the rights of the patient and oblige the physician voluntarily to behave in an altruistic manner towards patients” (Riddick). US National Library of Medicine cites evidence from a study conducted by E.D Pellegrino that in 1803, Thomas Percival published a Code of Medical Ethics that showed the ideal behavior of doctor in hospitals (qtd. in US National Library of Medicine).
The second book and author I read about is William Carlos Williams who practiced medicine. In the article, “William Carlos Williams: Physician-Writer and Godfather”, Williams was a dedicated student of medicine, who regarded both art and medicine as “two parts of a whole,” (Carter 1512). William Carlos Williams was a doctor for more than forty years in Rutherford, New Jersey who relied on his patients; the doctor-patient relationship inspired his writing. Out of the poems and stories that Williams has written, one of the better known stories is “The Use of

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These cells (nicknamed HeLa to protect Henriettas identity) reproduced infinitely like no other. George Gey put HeLa in culture which is cells that are removed from a plant or animal then are put into an artificial environment that is sterile warm and fed with the utmost of vigilance with medium(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. ). Medium what the cells are fed with were made up of multiple things, because scientists back then used all kinds of things for medium but George Gey used chicken blood, special salts and placenta(Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. ).

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Participation Portfolio 1 Asst 3: Henrietta Lacks Discussion Questions   Please answers each of the following questions, and be prepared to discuss in class   1. Please outline the history of Henrietta Lacks 's tissue cells. Who did what with the cells, when, where and for what purpose? Who benefited, scientifically, medically, and monetarily?

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is much more unique than any other books I read before this. The books involves with the Henrietta Lacks who has cervical cancer that turns to be non operational. Henrietta eventually dies, until to be autopsy for research and finding a vaccine for polio. I wasn’t only surprised by what happened to Henrietta, but, only to find out what happened to her children, such as Elsie, Joe, and Deborah. I was shocked to read about how Elsie died and where she died.

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239 Words | 1 Pages

Henrietta Lacks was a black tobacco farmer from the south who, in 1950, at the age of 30, she was diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer. Lacks went to John’s Hopkins medical center for treatment for her cancer. In April of 1951, she underwent surgery to remove the larger tumor on her cervix. Henrietta Lacks, died three days following the surgery. Even though Henrietta Lacks died, her cells from the tumor have lived on and have made a major impact on the biomedical community.

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663 Words | 3 Pages

Taking cells was not a part of her surgical procedure. Henrietta was a human being that should have been treated with respect. But mainly, George Gey treated her with everything but that. Taking 20+ years to tell her children

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Question #1 Some examples of the main characters not having access to a good education, specifically from the scientific field are in the beginning. It’s explained that when Henrietta was at the hospital that she had the education of an early middle schooler. She wouldn’t have a complete understanding of the “lump” she felt, but she would have a general assumption about what it is if she had a complete education. Later in the book, the reader is made aware that Henrietta’s husband, “Day” (Day, being a nickname for David) had “...only gone to school for four years of his life, and he never studied science”, not being able to understand the concept of immortal cells when asked for blood. Henrietta’s youngest son, Joe drops out of school arguing with teachers,

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Racism in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks “Excuse me, ma’am/sir, can I interest you in a product?” Every time I visit the mall, the sales people at the kiosk always bother me, in hopes that they can sell me their product. I, personally, ignore these people and continue on with my day, but once I observed a man become persuaded into buying a summer home in Florida because of the “amazing offer” the sales kiosk worker offered him. Therefore, people can persuade others into doing things they would not normally do using the same techniques authors use to try and persuade their readers to believe their point of view on a topic. In the 21st century non-fiction biography, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, American author, Rebecca Skloot

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Rebecca Skloot develops the idea that poverty comes with many difficult situations, in the book, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks". True, Henrietta and her family were poor, could barely afford their medical bills, and they didn 't get the extended care that they deserved. You will learn how being poor can change your life and what is done with it . In the book, Henrietta 's daughter, Deborah, has many medical problems and she has to spend all her money on not even all her medicine.

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The Hippocratic Oath is one of the oldest, most misinterpreted, documents in history. The goal of the oath is to treat the ill to the best of one’s abilities, to protect the privacy of the patient, to pass on the secrets of medicine to the next generations, and more ("Medical Definition of Hippocratic Oath"). This is usually taken by those beginning their medical practices and is still used today. It was written by Hippocrates, who was one of the greatest physicians, in the late fifth century (Walton and Kerridge). Since the Hippocratic Oath is interpreted in different ways, many suggest that it supports euthanasia.

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To begin with, the Hippocratic Oath is a set of ethical guidelines written by Hippocrates in response to the increased growth of untrained physicians, which affected scholars who were actually trained and apprenticed negatively (Boylan 15). The writing states many things, such as remaining strictly professional and neutral with patients (Boylan 22). Many doctors still swear upon the Hippocratic Oath. Next, the Hippocratic Corpus is a set of careful and detailed medical observations, remedies, and tips for diagnosis attributed to Hippocrates (Boylan 1), which many people still learn information from. Finally, the Four Humors theory states that an imbalance of the four vital fluids (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile) in the body caused disease (Boylan 4).

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Through the bioethics program at Columbia University, I intend to further investigate a few areas of interest. Surgical ethics is a significant area of interest and holds importance to me. I am interested in investigating the ethics of conducting research on the decisional capacity of patients who have

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PARACELSUS STARTS A MOVEMENT Aureolus Philippus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, (1493-1541), known as Paracelsus (the second Celsius!) gave the word bombastic to the lexicon of all modern languages! He was the son of an alchemist and learned all there was to know about alchemy from his father. He then went to Basle University in Switzerland to study, but became dissatisfied with their complete reliance on authority. He then set up to wonder throughout Europe, acquiring knowledge of nature first hand.

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These fields have always had ethical standards handed down to every professional, but now that medicine has begun improving almost exponentially, it is time for significant changes in treatment for the sick and the conduction of research to be brought about. Researchers and physicians tend to overlook the processes by which core beliefs about science impact public opinion and that references can become embedded in media coverage. Bioethics focuses most of its attention on issues involving human life, more specifically whether it is moral to end it at any stage. When a hotly-contested topics like assisted dying and abortion are debated, all-or-nothing positions tend to come with little thought given to the desirability of compromise. Euthanasia and abortion, although occurring at opposite times in life, are the same thing since both are ethically conflicted with the boundaries of life.

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The Doctor of Poetry William Carlos Williams was a man who was as impressive as he was impressionable. As exemplified by his many works and contributions to the Imagist movement, Williams and his writing were significantly shaped by his upbringing and those who surrounded him as well as his medical experience as a physician. Throughout his childhood and adolescence, he was drawn to his natural surroundings, and his appreciation of nature shines brightly as the centerpiece of much of his work. Doctor Williams’s exposure to a motley of patients from all types of backgrounds allowed him to have a wider perspective of what the human experience truly embodied.

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Autonomy vs. Beneficence: The Tough Choice. Essential changes have occurred in medical ethics in comparison to the ancient medical beliefs that predominated the decisions taken by health care professionals. The antecedent theories of medical ethics have led to altered physician-patient relationship in the modern world. These changes notably include emphasis on the principle of patient autonomy. The paradigm shift from beneficence to autonomy has created an ethical dilemma in the field of medicine.

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