Henrietta Lacks

In August of 2013, Talha Khan Burki wrote “Righting a Long-standing Wrong for Henrietta Lacks” for Lancet Oncology. Burki’s purpose was to highlight the problem with the sequence data of patients’ cells (namely, Henrietta Lacks) being publicly released and to inform people of the privacy risks involved. Burki did a very good job at explaining what the issue was, what had been done about it and what needed to happen. Generally, readers struggle and become overwhelmed when they see a large sum of information all at one time. However, while this article provides the reader with several facts, it makes the reader think and Burki did a very well at writing in a manner that prior knowledge of certain terms or concepts are not critical to comprehending. Ideally, an author should use eight elements of critical thinking, and Burki did just that.

Also she used quotes, facts and made the situation clelar to the reader. For example, a key concept she used is the “closed access database” that was opted by the US National Institutes of Health (e395). Equally important, she explains what a closed access database meant for scientists. Additionally, Burki includes information to explain what “HeLa” was, and supplies more facts that in turn keep the reader interested. In the beginning, Burki skips over the fact that Henrietta lacs has cervical cancer, instead, she wrote “the surgeon cut a sample of the tumour that was to kill her that year”. However, Burki knows this is not crucial to the situation. This is proved when Rebecca Skloot, a source used by Burki recalls the entire ordeal the Lacks’ family had gone through as “appalling” (e395). By using these sources, Burki makes a stand on the issue and shows disapproval of what doctors and hospitals have done to the Lacks