Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

The definition of abstraction is existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence. Many people are viewed as if they are insignificant because of how they look, or act. They are seen as if they do not add up in the equation and that it is okay to just take advantage of them. Throughout the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, there are many times the Lacks family is seen as an abstraction in certain situations due to the color of their skin or how much money they have; however, there a some consequences for people who treat them that way.
At the beginning of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a quote by Wiesel claims, “We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see every person …show more content…
And throughout the book, the author shows us how the scientific community and the media portrayed the Lacks family, as an abstraction, as if they are not an important piece to the immortal cell situation, nor a human being with feelings, which was seemingly because they were colored and didn't have much, if any, money. Many colored people also did not receive the proper education that they should have, rather than some of the media and scientific community. And because of their poor education, the media and scientist must have thought is was okay to disregard their feelings because they assumed they wouldn’t even understand what they were saying, without even attempting to explain what sickness they had and also because they felt their scientific discoveries were more important, to therefore they were afraid to ask for consent for research because they thought people would get scared and say no; “Racial segregation was commonplace in US hospitals well into the 20th century. It took several forms. One was simply that, there were hospitals for white people, and the African- Americans, had a seperate hospital which tended to be lower quality.- Emily Friedman, Hospitals & Health Networks.” Because the scientific community viewed Henrietta and her family as abstractions, they did not have a …show more content…
The scientific community continuously did things without people’s consent, and treated people of certain color like lab rats of some sort. “Because informed consent was not required for the development of the HeLa cells, neither Henrietta nor her family knew the cells even existed until 20 years later.-Dale Keiger, John Hopkins Magazine.” Some profited from selling, or just using the cells to help cancer patients and help create many other vaccines for sicknesses, but the family did not because they knew nothing of what was going on with their mother, or wifes cells. For a while, there was a back and forth situation where informed consent wasn't really taken as seriously as it should have been but, in the 1970s, it eventually got to the point where they had to pass a law. Consent was required for scientist to take samples or analyze on the patient's body. Of course, since that law was passed, patients then knew what

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The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Summary

Summary Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks