In 1951, a lab assistant named Mary Kubicek attended an autopsy at John Hopkins Hospital. On the autopsy table laid a poor African American woman who had died at the age of thirty from cervical cancer that consumed so much of her body that there was hardly an organ that was not overtaken by disease. The young lab assistant had never seen a dead body before and attempted to avoid looking at the face of the deceased woman. Instead, she focused on the woman’s hands and feet. That is when she noticed the woman’s chipped red toenail polish.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks starts in 1951 with a young woman of four. She told her close friends that she had “a knot inside me”. Her friends strongly encouraged her to go to the doctor, but she denied the advice. She kept this pain from her family so they wouldn’t worry about her, and then she became pregnant with her fifth child Joe. Shortly after she birthed Joe, she started experiencing external bleeding and stated she had a hard lump inside her womb.
The issue of privacy has been one dating back to the beginning of society. In order to protect it we have erected walls around us and called them homes, fences and called them territories, borders and called them countries. As the modern day arrived, society innovated to the point that ownership and privacy are no longer clear. Science has developed at a rate where morals and laws cannot keep up, more specifically, in the medical department. Such a problem is detailed in Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
The issue of privacy has been one dating back to the beginning of society. In order to protect it we have erected walls around us and called them homes, fences and called them territories, borders and called them countries. As the modern day arrived, society innovated to the point that ownership and privacy are no longer clear. Science has developed at a rate where morals and laws cannot keep up, more specifically, in the medical department. Such a problem is detailed in Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
2015 Read and Response: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Throughout the Lacks’ family history there has been nothing more but absence of information and deceitfulness. The prolonged journey of finding out who exactly Deborah’s mother was and how she changed science was all but easy. One of the most common messages throughout the book was the conflict between individual rights and scientific exploration from high, authoritative figures such as scientists, doctors and the research community.
"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" is a profoundly moving and thought-provoking drama television film that combines historical and ethical exploration with a strong focus on human relationships and resilience. Directed by George C. Wolfe, the film showcases the exceptional acting talents of Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne, who bring depth and emotion to this incredible story. Based on Rebecca Skloot's bestselling book, the film delves into the life of Henrietta Lacks, a woman diagnosed with cervical cancer in the 1950s, and the unprecedented consequences of her cancer cells, known as HeLa. Since its premiere on HBO on April 22, 2017, the film has continued to spark meaningful conversations about consent, race, and the ethical challenges faced
“Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness” (Immanuel Kant). Morality is the divergence between right and wrong in every aspect of life. The history of the world has demonstrated human need to attain sovereignty. In the journey to achieve this goal, people have forgotten the gravity of the steps taken to complete an ideal and have only focused on the result. There have been several examples where detrimental actions have been taken by fortunate people to accomplish their goals.
Tissue Ownership When I was younger I never really thought too much about my grandfather’s unsteady balance, notably small handwriting, mumbling or slurred words, and uncontrollable shaking. I used to think it was just because I was little and he was older; I never imagined my grandfather having a disease. Especially Parkinson’s, a complex and incurable disease that would attack his nervous system. Although, there are medications and other options to try and make Parkinson’s bearable, there’s still no cure for my grandfather. As I get older it makes me wonder, how important is medical advancement to society?
Usually in life, it is best for anyone to take a step back to the past and look at the big picture. No one could flatter himself that he is immune to the changes around him. Moreover, with all the demands that life can put on a person, sometimes it is easy to lose the essence of “me”. By losing this essence, the person could develop either a better version or a worse version of himself. Looking back at the beginning of this year (freshman year), I have been just that young soul eager to meet life’s challenges especially culture changing challenges.
Just think for a moment, how would you feel if you had to spend most of your lifetime at home? Some humans find it difficult to live or even talk to disabled people without even thinking of how they might feel. This could’ve been me if I only didn’t grew up with a disabled family member. My uncle who is named Pavel has mental health problems which are not curable, doctors don’t know how to help. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about woman who died because of unknowledgeable doctors.
What if life contributed to no meaning and the only point which matters is the existence happening during the present? To make things worse, as humans live, they breath, but as they die a salvation is received to their soul, and their existence is over. The Stranger by Albert Camus illustrates that the human soul exists in the world physically, therefore the presence or absence does not contribute to any particular event in life. Through, this thought the novel introduces Meursault, who alienates himself from society. He lacks concern for social conventions and is deprived of the physical bounding from people around him.
In “The Turn of the Screw”, personal pride needs to control romantic thoughts in order to bring an end to inappropriate hopes and desires. Romantic thoughts give an understanding of people’s deepest desires. The protagonist in this novella moves from reality to her romantic thoughts as she had been, “carried away in London” (15) influencing her to dream. The character the Governess dreams also desires to be wanted and become the master’s wife. However, these dreams and desires are impossible for her, because they are beyond her position also innaprobriate.
In Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, The Stranger by Albert Camus, and the current college process that I am engulfed in, existentialism proves itself to be true. Existentialism is intimidating until an overarching lesson is learned through the choices and responsibilities, passions (or lack thereof), and the isolation of a person, such as Marjane, Meursault, or myself. On the surface, the three of us are extremely dissimilar, but we all experience relatively negative things that teach us more than we knew before. Marjane Satrapi is a real woman who grew up in Iran, Meursault is a character from North Africa, and I am a real teenage girl from a small seaside town. Nonetheless, when it comes to existentialism, the three of us stand as examples of the legitimacy of its philosophy.
The theme of "The Count of Monte Cristo" is to appreciate the little ray of hope you may have and to value every little thing that comes your way even if it is something diminutive like a reoccurring sound. In "The Count of Monte Cristo" it states,"...and had sent this noise to warn him on the very brink of the abyss. " It also states,"...a ray of something like hope that soothed his last moments. " The author seems to indicate that Edmond was enjoying figuring out what the sound is from and using the noise as a way to not lose his sanity. The author also implies that Edmond thought that the noise was a heaven sent gift that heaven sent because it was taking pity on him.
In my essay I will be discussing the link between the different ways of reading “The Plague” (by Albert Camus, published in 1947) (Google Books, 2014). There is of course the literal story of a plague, then there is the metaphorical meaning of the Nazi Occupation, and when you look deeper into the book, you find that all of this is based around not just the Nazi occupation but a “darkness” - which symbolises pure evil. This evil is not literally the devil, but a more complicated way of referring to Existentialism (Miclaus, 2014). There is an order of reading this book and by analysing it, we come to an understanding with how the three themes come together into a bigger picture.
