The Untold Story of Henrietta Lacks Essay

Words: 3163
Pages: 13
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Katelyn Jakubowski
AP Language and Composition
8/13/12
Flourishing from Success
“The scientific enterprise is all about failure; I mean, you learn so much from failure. And you learn almost nothing from success.” This scientist is stating that one cannot gain any knowledge without failing. This is not true. Once one obtains success one now knows exactly what to do to achieve success, thus opening doors and further experiences for them. The novel “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot, due to the success of tissue culture researcher Dr. George Gey can further dispute this quote. His success in tissue culture led to further discoveries, and became one of the most important breakthroughs in modern medicine. The world was …show more content…
Lack’s was never asked permission for samples to be taken from her, but Dr. Gey did not appear to care less. His values were science and research, the hope of culturing the first line of immortal human cells. Once that dream became a reality Dr. Gey did not question any ethics of morality. He was never hesitant in his decision to distribute Henrietta Lack’s cells for research. Dr. Gey believed everything he was doing for the medical field was justified. Part 2: In Part 2 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot the reader learns about the childhoods of the Lack’s children after Henrietta’s death. Soon after their mother died cousins Ethel and Galen moved into the house. Ethel claimed she wanted to move in to “help with the children” but this was not the case. Her values were those of hate and deceit. Rumors flied of her infidelity to Galen replacing him with Day, Henrietta’s husband. Ethel also took out her anger by beating and torturing the Lacks children. It is without question that Ethel had no moral ethics. If she did she wouldn’t have starved, tied up or beaten the children for no apparent reason. Part 3: In Part 3 of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot the reader is introduced to John Moore and David Golde. Moore had developed hairy-cell leukemia a deadly form of cancer and traveled to UCLA to receive help from Dr. Golde. Dr. Golde removed Moore’s spleen and Moore had a full recovery.
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