Henrietta Part III

I really do think that people have a right to privacy and to know what is being done with all of their tissues. It shouldn't matter if the patient is having surgery to remove an organ or just having their blood drawn. It is still part of their body. Yes, they knowingly gave it up and assumed that these tissues and blood wold be disposed of after they were irrelevant to the patient's diagnosis. I think if researchers plan to use any part of a patient, they need to inform the patient of what more is to be done with their tissues and more importantly, researchers need to take every measure to make sure that these patients understand exactly whats happening. That was part of the problem with Henrietta's family. When her husband and children inquired about her records and cells, they were not able to understand what was happening and what was being done.

Erin Pattridge

Discussion from 4/17/12

During this class we discussed Part 3 of the Henrietta Lacks book.  In this discussion we talked about how Henrietta should be remembered and if her family should be compensated and if so how.

This discussion got pretty heated and some people thought that her family should be given health care and that brings the questions of should the United States have universal health care.  We also talked in class about how this happened to a lot of other people.  It Brings up the issue that the other family's should be compensated. 

Personally, I think Henrietta's family should be compensated for the selling of her cells and they should be given a chunck of the profits since her cells are still alive today.  This would bother me if I was her family.  I would ask to have the money adjusted for today's economy and be compensated that way. 

Leslie Walter

Immortal Cells

For today's class we talked about the third part of the Henrietta Lacks book. This part of the book kind of made me very angery with the way that the family was being treated with people acting like they wanted to help but they were really looking out for themselves. It made me even more mad when their cousin also was trying to use them to get money and information about their mother. This is all relevant in today's world because people still do this today. People who are not as well off as other people will get used by them in order to better themselves and the people on teh bottom will be left no better off then they were in the beginning. I think that major concern in this part of the book dealt with the fact of who the cells belonged to. while the courts made a ruling that doctors can keep any part of you that was left behind i think that this is wrong. if a doctor or a scientist wants to use a part of you whether you are dead or alive to consuct research then they should have to get permission from you if you are alive or from you family members if you are dead. i also feel like the Lacks family deserved better treatment then they did considering noone was ever asked if they can have the cells. when it comes to using people's cells the researchers should have to disclose everything that they want to do with them and not just tell people what they want to hear to get them to cooperate. i feel like this may still happen today with doctors that are unethical but i feel like with their being laws about having consent forms it is occuring less and less. in a way Henrietta Lacks paved the way to a more ethical medical feild and without her or her kids we wouldnt be where we are today medically.

Henrietta Lacks: Washington's Medical Apartheid vs. Skloot

As I was reading the chapter in Medical Apartheid where Washington mentions Lacks, I was surprised she only really talked about her in five sentences - I thought to myself, that's it? I feel as though there could have been an entire section in that chapter devoted to Henrietta alone. This makes me appreciate Skloot's book on Lacks even more - what happened to Henrietta is a story that needs to be told, and luckily Skloot was compelled enough to write a book so other people could learn about it after she had been so fascinated herself. I wish Washington had spent more time discussing Lacks in her book so we could really see the differences between how the two authors think about this controversial topic.

- Josh Steffen

The new fingerprint

DNA is the latest tool used to convict or free the accused but this is just a tool and if improperly used it is less than worthless.  I found the authors naiveté about the acceptance of this process to be amusing, apparently she never read the articles that appeared when the developers of fingerprinting were trying to get this process accepted by law enforcement and the courts. 

Joyce Abbott

Compensation?

One of the things we brought up in our discussion during class was should Johns Hopkins give some sort of compensation to the Lacks family for what happened to Henrietta. The entire time the only thing I could think about was how that hospital was full of selfless jerks that couldn't take a small portion of the millions they make each year to donate to the family. But what I didn't think about was - could they even if they wanted too? In Skloots book and interview she says that the taking of cells for biopsy was a common thing that didn't need consent, so would they feel obligated to give everyone else money too? Im sure by not donating money they are avoiding the negative attention and poor image of having "immoral doctors" working at Johns Hopkins Hospital today- which I should note is one of the best hospitals in the country.

Brian G 

Henrietta Lacks

When reading the Immortally section of the Henrietta Lacks book, I kept wondering if Deborah finding out about her mother and sister was actually beneficial to her, and if it in some way gave Deborah piece. As we can see in the book, the more Deborah found out about her mother and her sister, the more it took a physical toll on her. Though Deborah was curious about what happened to her mother and her sister, maybe ignorance is bliss, and she would have been better off not knowing. Could finding out about what happened to her family members only effect Deborah in a negative way? Also Deborah never got to see the publication of the book, and how well it succeeded. It might have helped bring Deborah piece of mind knowing that the story about her mother was finally out in the public. However, in the book it stated that Deborah had passed away with a smile on her face. I was wondering what other people thought of this. Did you think finding out about her family truly brought Deborah piece?