The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

1118 Words5 Pages

The deliberation of bioethics in human cell and stem cell research has flip-flopped altercations between whether stem cell research corrupts the future or if basic ethical uses in clinical research are being held to its standards. The idea of having genetically altered drugs and cells sits with people the wrong way, and with that they have come to the decision that cell research will cause more problems than it stopping them. However, while a majority of people and scientists believe genetic engineering is an evil corruption of nature’s course, genetic engineering has the greatest potential to do something great for our future, but it is our moralistic responsibility to follow the rules of bioethics. The author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta …show more content…

The story is about a black woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer and her tissue samples were taken without her consent, creating the now controversially famous HeLa cells. These cells lived on even after she died and were continuously tested on despite the lack of consent. It states from early on, indirectly, that it would be mostly focusing on the idea of how, “There’s no way of knowing exactly how many of Henrietta's cells are alive today.” (Source D). And from the author’s view, we can see from the beginning the attachment Skloot has to this subject, “I’ve spent years staring at that photo, wondering what kind of life she led, what happened to her children,” (Source D). It is interesting how at first glance it may not seem as if this was how the book would let on, but this is how the story’s base formulated. Skloot also brings in many good points, about how Lacks’ race and gender probably affected her treatment, “Her light brown skin is smooth, her eyes still young and playful, oblivious to the tumor growing inside hera tumor that would leave her five children motherless and change the future of medicine.” (Source D). This is stated in the very first lines of the book, giving emphasis on how this will be a big deal in not only the future of medicine, but in how people are treated due to prejudices. Reading further into the book, when we see