A Researcher’s Remorse

““I want to tell them a little what HeLa means to me as a young cancer researcher, and how grateful I am for their donation years ago” he wrote. “I do not represent Hopkins, but I am part of it. In a way I might even want to apologize.”” (Skloot, 234)

        

           Apologies are always difficult, especially if you are not the one at fault; however, Christoph Lengauer a cancer researcher at John Hopkins Hospital saw the importance of an apology to the Lacks family. I think this was a huge step in the novel; finally a researcher that had used Henrietta’s cells had apologized for the disservice that her family had experienced. This one simple step was exactly what the Lacks family needed. It was clear that Deborah was grateful for the gift and appreciated the apology even though she did not say it with words. Lengauer did an amazing thing, which should have been done from a long time ago. I especially appreciate how even though he was not the one to personally take the cells, he does take responsibility and wants to apologize on behalf of the people that did take the cells so many years ago. This really showed that researchers really do have hearts and are not as cold and calculating as they seemed in previous chapters. Langauer was able to recognize that what the researchers did so many years ago was terrible and I hope that many other researchers have the same mindset as him. I am extremely glad that a researcher finally had the courage and dignity to offer the Lack family the apology that they deserved after all of these years.    

Word Count: 227

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2010. 234. Print.

Domestic Abuse

“One day, as Deborah’s stood at the sink doing dishes, her hands covered in soap bubbles, Cheetah ran into the kitchen yelling something about her sleeping around on him. Then he smacked her.” (Skloot 150)

          

Domestic abuse is always a hard pill to swallow. Why would anyone who claims to love someone ever lay his or her hands on that person to cause harm? Even though the reasons for this behavior are unfathomable for a lot of the population this is something that happens much too often. In Deborah’s case she became so worn out, tired, and hopeless that the only exit she saw was to kill her husband. This treatment put her in such a terrible place that she considered murder; murder, the same thing that she said her brother needed to turn himself into the authorities for (Skloot 147). Deborah only resorted to this because she felt trapped; she did not have anywhere else to go and he was the father of her children, and by the time she finally decided to do something about the abuse she wanted him out of her life for good. This situation is not only specific to Deborah, 1 in 4 women report experiencing domestic violence in their lifetimes (“Domestic Violence Facts”). So many other women go through the same pain and suffering that Deborah had to endure and this should never be the case for any human being. Domestic abuse is a massive problem in our society and it stems from our problem of resorting to violence to solve arguments instead of words. No human being should ever touch another to cause harm, but this is what we have been taught. We have been taught that to receive submissive behavior from others we must show them who is dominant. In order to end domestic abuse we need to do away with this backwards thinking and teach people that violence is never the answer.

Word Count: 287

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2010. 150. Print.

"Domestic Violence Facts." Click To Empower. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

        

Ethical Code? I Don’t Have to Follow That…

“He told them he was testing their immune systems; he said nothing about injecting them with someone else’s malignant cells” (Skloot 128)

During the 1950’s scientists worked in mysterious ways, almost as if they had forgotten what it meant to be human or as if they had forgotten the value of life. Just the fact that Chester Southam injected patients with cancerous HeLa cells was wrong enough, but for him to do it without their consent was ludicrous! At least Henrietta’s doctors somewhat asked for consent, Southam did no such thing. The patients he worked on came to the hospital to receive treatment for their diseases not to become more ill and the worst part about it was that he was not even their doctor. He was just some scientist who came in and lied just to get his own way. This put so many people in danger. So many things could have gone wrong and so many things did go wrong.  In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, Skloot mentions that the cancer nodules grew back repeatedly in 4 patients (128). How are we to know that this did not happen with other patients? Doctors and scientists during this era seemed to have left their human element behind. They were cold, almost to the point of having no emotions and no sense of right and wrong. Everything seemed to be in the name of science, and as long as it benefited science it was “ethical” to them. The scientists did not take into account how patients may have felt. They felt like they had the power and could do anything, and they did do anything that seemed right in accordance to science. The most discouraging part about this is that other scientists did not think that what Southam did here was wrong. They argued that it was unnecessary to disclose all information or get consent and that Southam’s behavior was considered ethical in the field (134). How is injecting people with cancer ever ethical, especially without their consent? It is amazing to think that scientists ever thought this way, but unfortunately that was the way things were. Doctors had a sense of entitlement; they felt that since they were healing their patients they could use their bodies for their own purposes. Everything was “ethical” if it was for the advancement of science. Science clearly came first and human lives came second.  

Word Count: 383

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2010. 128. Print.

Are People the Reason for the Advancement of Medicine or Are They Simply Tools for the Advancement of Medicine?

““When I saw those toenails,” Mary told me years later, “I nearly fainted. I thought, Oh jeez, she’s a real person. I started imagining her sitting in her bathroom painting those toenails, and it hit me for the first time that those cells we’d been working with all this time and sending all over the world, they came from a live woman. I’d never thought of it that way.” (Skloot, 91)

When we think of medicine we often think of something that is there to help us, to heal us or to benefit us in some way, however, this is not always the case. Scientist say that they are working to create something for the greater good, to benefit the greatest amount of people; but while conducting their research they seem to forget about the human aspect of it all and view specimens as tools and not as human beings. The scientists in Gey’s lab never cared about who Henrietta was. They never looked into her personal life to discover the sweet and loving person she was and they did not care about her family, unless it had to do with growing more immortal cells. In this regard all the scientists saw was a means to accomplish their specific goals of growing immortal cells. Henrietta was not a person to these scientists but she was a tool; a tool that they exploited even after her death. Even after her death the scientists insisted on gathering more of her cells, when her husband said no they pushed and lied and said they were doing the research to help her children someday (Skloot, 90). Yes, these cells might have helped her children someday, but this was not the main goal of the scientists. They wanted to use her once more to see if any of her other cells were “immortal.” They did not care that her family might not want their loved one’s body being torn apart in a lab or that maybe Henrietta would not want that either, since she was never truly able to give consent. As Mary said she never once thought of her as a real person until she saw her. This should have never been the case, the cells clearly came from somewhere and the place they came from was a living human being, not a tool which could be used and reused for science.     

Word Count: 327

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2010. 92. Print.

  

The Prevalent Racism of the 1950’s.

“David drove Henrietta nearly twenty miles to get there, not because they preferred it, but because it was the only major hospital for miles that treated black patients. This was the era of Jim Crow-when black people showed up at white-only hospitals, the staff was likely to send them away, even if it meant they might die in the parking lot. Even Hopkins, which did treat black patients, segregated them in colored wards, and had colored-only fountains.” (Skloot, 15)

Everyone is familiar with the act of racism, the belief that some races are inherently superior to others and therefore have a right to dominate them. But why was this act so prevalent in the 1950’s, almost 100 years after slavery had been abolished and we had determined that we were all human beings and deserved to be treated on the same basis? The reason for this is that this type of treatment was the status quo; no one went against it thus it was seen as acceptable to practice and those who did go against it were prosecuted by those who wanted this treatment to remain the status quo. The thought of a black person having to drive nearly 20 miles, passing numerous hospitals on the way to receive treatment is ridiculous. Especially for those who may not possess a car or may be suffering from a condition that needs treatment immediately. Even though it was the status quo at the time, how could anyone put someone outside when they came for treatment if they knew the consequence for that person would be death? Clearly during this time the staff did not view black people as human beings, because no human being would sit there and allow another one to die when the medicine to keep that human being alive is readily available at his or her fingertips. Furthermore, it is almost as if they viewed black people as organisms that did not deserve to be kept alive, as though white people were the only people who got sick and were the only ones who deserved to be cured. Even the only hospital that treated colored patients for miles participated in this form of racism to a lesser degree, but at least they somewhat treated their black patients like human beings. However, of course the treatment given to the black patients was not the same as the treatment given to the white patients. The color ward was inferior in terms of care and treatment, but this was all they received, it was a take it or leave it scenario and was the only choice for black people living in the area at the time. It was either deal with the racism of the medical field or die.   

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Paperbacks, 2010. 15. Print.