The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
CherlyDestra
Mr. Kelly
Oct 4, 2013
Clip 3A
Draft3
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The quality of being fair is very demanding. According to Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta Lacks was a special woman who had helped society by her cells which are called HeLa cells. Doctors took her cells without any permission. The HeLa cells never die and they keep growing day by day. In addition, they have been helping us every day in our life. Even though many people get benefit from HeLa cell, her family still can’t effort health insurance and many people still don’t know about Henrietta Lacks. The fact that other people having benefited from HeLa cell and her family didn’t get a benefit is really unfair.
Henrietta Lack’s’ family didn’t know if Henrietta was immortal until twenty years after her death. When Rebecca Skloot started to interview each of her family members, she learned that scientists took Henrietta’s cells without family authorization. When the family learned Henrietta’s cells were still alive, Lack’s’ family felt very awful because they took her cells not only help to people, but also to make a lot of money, meanwhile the family still can’t afford health insurance. Many of Henrietta Lack’s’ family felt frustrated because Doctor Gey also gave the cell to which he wanted, and even change the name to HeLa. However, Doctors Gey changes Henrietta to HeLa cells because he wanted to keep the secret away from the family. Although many doctors made money of HeLa cell, they never thought about Lack’s’ family which is very painful.
Deborah, who is Henrietta Lack’s’ daughter was very upset when she learned that scientists had been using her mother’s cell and she still can’t afford health insurance. Even though she already has a lot of health issues, her mother’s news increased her disease and made it more dangerous health problems for her. Deborah said “people got rich off my mother without us knowing about them taking her cells, now we don’t get a dime” (page 9). In other words this statement means doctors took her mother’s cell without any family permission, many people involved got rich and now her family is in poverty. They can’t even afford health insurance. Although she tried to forget everything, she still sees her mother’s life history as injustice. The thing that hurt Deborah the most is that Doctor Gey changed her mother name to another name, which are HeLa cells. Therefore, knows body could recognize Henrietta name when they talk about HeLa cells.
Lack’s’ story is also unfair because Doctor George Gey developed the technique used to grow HeLa cell from Henrietta cancer tissues in his lab, but them when we see Dr. Sam Reader had been making more money than Doctor Gey. Sam Reader also owned a company to sell HeLa cell around the world while the Lack’s’ family couldn’t get any benefit from it and her children were treated badly. I think even though HeLa cells helped many societies, Sam Reader should have some conscience of helping Lacks family. In addition, the government should give HeLa family free health insurance because Henrietta Lacks has improved society. Her cells have been sent around the world. Even if the government doesn’t give the Lack’s’ family free money, they should give them free insurance, because the government is involved in HeLa cells.
If I were Henrietta Lack’s’ family, I would insist on having health insurance because people getting rich from the HeLa cell which are not a part in my family. The others things are to make sure doctors don’t have any authorization to take patient blood without permission. I strongly disagree with what happened to many patients in the hospital about doctors taking their blood to do whatever their want without their permission.
As we can see, this unfairness is very complex. Doctors Gey and Reader took Henrietta Lack’s’ cells and used them as they wanted. And many people got rich from it. However ,the family members still have financial problem and cant even have free health insurance. That is why the quality of fair is very difficult.
CherlyDestra
Mr. Kelly
Oct 4, 2013
Clip 3A
Draft3
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The quality of being fair is very demanding. According to Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Henrietta Lacks was a special woman who had helped society by her cells which are called HeLa cells. Doctors took her cells without any permission. The HeLa cells never die and they keep growing day by day. In addition, they have been helping us every day in our life. Even though many people get benefit from HeLa cell, her family still can’t effort health insurance and many people still don’t know about Henrietta Lacks. The fact that other people having benefited from HeLa cell and her family didn’t get a benefit is really unfair.
Henrietta Lack’s’ family didn’t know if Henrietta was immortal until twenty years after her death. When Rebecca Skloot started to interview each of her family members, she learned that scientists took Henrietta’s cells without family authorization. When the family learned Henrietta’s cells were still alive, Lack’s’ family felt very awful because they took her cells not only help to people, but also to make a lot of money, meanwhile the family still can’t afford health insurance. Many of Henrietta Lack’s’ family felt frustrated because Doctor Gey also gave the cell to which he wanted, and even change the name to HeLa. However, Doctors Gey changes Henrietta to HeLa cells because he wanted to keep the secret away from the family. Although many doctors made money of HeLa cell, they never thought about Lack’s’ family which is very painful.
Deborah, who is Henrietta Lack’s’ daughter was very upset when she learned that scientists had been using her mother’s cell and she still can’t afford health insurance. Even though she already has a lot of health issues, her mother’s news increased her disease and made it more dangerous health problems for her. Deborah said “people got rich off my mother without us knowing about them taking her cells, now we don’t get a dime” (page 9). In other words this statement means doctors took her mother’s cell without any family permission, many people involved got rich and now her family is in poverty. They can’t even afford health insurance. Although she tried to forget everything, she still sees her mother’s life history as injustice. The thing that hurt Deborah the most is that Doctor Gey changed her mother name to another name, which are HeLa cells. Therefore, knows body could recognize Henrietta name when they talk about HeLa cells.
Lack’s’ story is also unfair because Doctor George Gey developed the technique used to grow HeLa cell from Henrietta cancer tissues in his lab, but them when we see Dr. Sam Reader had been making more money than Doctor Gey. Sam Reader also owned a company to sell HeLa cell around the world while the Lack’s’ family couldn’t get any benefit from it and her children were treated badly. I think even though HeLa cells helped many societies, Sam Reader should have some conscience of helping Lacks family. In addition, the government should give HeLa family free health insurance because Henrietta Lacks has improved society. Her cells have been sent around the world. Even if the government doesn’t give the Lack’s’ family free money, they should give them free insurance, because the government is involved in HeLa cells.
If I were Henrietta Lack’s’ family, I would insist on having health insurance because people getting rich from the HeLa cell which are not a part in my family. The others things are to make sure doctors don’t have any authorization to take patient blood without permission. I strongly disagree with what happened to many patients in the hospital about doctors taking their blood to do whatever their want without their permission.
As we can see, this unfairness is very complex. Doctors Gey and Reader took Henrietta Lack’s’ cells and used them as they wanted. And many people got rich from it. However ,the family members still have financial problem and cant even have free health insurance. That is why the quality of fair is very difficult.