Hi. I need the following essay revised. I need the following fixed while your rewriting essay:
1.One central theme glimpsed is that of informed consent. Informed consent needs to be filled out more clearly.
2.Address Skloot’s style. Why and how to show the theme of Hela cells.
3.Show other examples and why to show the degree of disrespect that black patients were accorded at the time.
4.Can you explain why Hela cells was deemed unimportant? Show social forces of these times.
5.How does Skloot’s description of Henrietta as a wife and mother fit the thesis? Note:She also loves children.
6.Can you explain why something went wrong on Henrietta’s case, or it was simply denied?
7.Discuss Henrietta being from Clover, Virgina historically and socially.
8.What were the reasons George Gey had from that time to betray Henrietta? Note:Something in the book about patents privacy.
9.Are you sure George Gey’s lying was blatant?
Make sure when you revise this essay, there is more discussion, less quotes, and look at issues from historical social forces and influencing views.
I have attached the essay you wrote before below for revising.
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks- Consent Denied”
In the second month of 1951, Henrietta Lacks lay unconscious at the operating table at Johns Hopkins Hospital, her feet in stirrups. The 31 year old black woman had travelled 20 miles to the hospital to get treated, for cervical cancer; Johns Hopkins was the only major hospital that treated black patients. However, as she lay unconscious, two dime sized pieces of tissue from her cervix were taken; without her consent, and without her knowledge. Henrietta Lacks’ tissues should have died, just like all other human tissues, but they did not; they survived and multiplied. They were the first ever immortal human cells. No one informed Henrietta Lacks, and her family learnt of her cells immortality much later. Henrietta Lacks cells revolutionized medicine, but her name was not credited to the cells for nearly twenty years. “HeLa” cells as they were named changed medicine, being used to develop cancer drugs, honing experimental standards and even offering basis for studying cellular processes. Her family not only knew of the cell’s existence, but “. . . the general public knew nothing of HeLa.” (46). So, one central theme glimpsed from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot is that of informed consent. Henrietta Lacks’ cells not only achieved immortality, but they revolutionized medicine, managing to save countless lives yet consent from Henrietta was denied, and her family too was kept in the dark over the remarkableness of the “HeLa” cells.
“But first—though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor—Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta’s cervix: one from her tumor and one from the healthy cervical tissue nearby” (28). This is how the amazing journey of the “HeLa” cells started. The owner of the cells, was unconscious at the hospital, and the only consent she had given doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital, was “. . . to perform any operative procedures and under any anaesthetic either local or general that they may deem necessary in the proper surgical care and treatment of cervical cancer” (27). Even after the surgery no one informed Henrietta or her family that her cells had been harvested, and gone on to become the world’s first immortal human cells. This was not only a breach of trust from patient to doctor, but it also shows the degree of respect that black patients were accorded at the time. A level so low that asking for consent to harvest cells was deemed too menial, and even later on, informing the donor or the family of the success of “HeLa” cells was also deemed unimportant.
Skloot’s description of Henrietta as a wife and mother, are that of a woman who loves what she is and does; she has accepted her life. This comes out clearly with the descriptions Henrietta is given by the author “. . . Henrietta spent her time cooking for Day the children and whichever cousins happened to be at her house.” (35). Henrietta “. . . just love peoples. She was a person that could really make the good things come out of you.” (35). Skloot also points out that “Henrietta had a way with children—they were always good and quiet when she was around.” (37). Therefore, when Henrietta started getting treated for cancer using Radium, she expected that she would recover, and go back to her old life. But it would seem that Henrietta was again, not informed the effects that the treatments would have on her “. . . Until that moment, Henrietta didn’t know that the treatments had left her infertile.” (38). Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital, because it was where she believed she would get the best treatment for cancer, she gets the treatment, but she is not adequately informed on the consequences of her treatment, which leaves her infertile. This is a clear case of denied consent, because had Henrietta been informed of the effects of the radiation treatment, she would have refused the treatment. A doctor who was working on her case brings this out clearly on his medical record “. . . Told she could not have any more children. Says if she had been told so before, she would not have gone through with treatment” (38). This, denied consent is further amplified by the fact that Telinde wrote a paper on hysterectomy and argued that “The psychic effect of hysterectomy, especially on the young, is considerable, and it should not be done without a thorough understanding on the part of the patient [who is] entitled to a simple explanation of the facts [including] loss of the reproductive function. … It is well to present the facts to such an individual and give her ample time to digest them . . . “(38). So, indeed something went wrong on Henrietta’s case, or it was simply denied consent for the poor black woman from Clover, Virginia.
George Gey is credited for having introduced the first ever immortal human cells to the world, but he was only able to do this via Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells. However, it would seem that Gey betrayed Henrietta since he refused to acknowledge to the world the true origin of the cells. Gey had many an opportunity to set the record straight over the cell’s origins, but he failed to do so. Appearing on WAAM television, a few weeks after Henrietta started getting treated for cancer; Gey announces that it will now be possible to cure cancer via the immortal cells. At this point in time, Henrietta is still alive; Gey does not ask Henrietta for permission or consent to make such an announcement. Skool writes “In Gey’s one appearance on television, he didn’t mention Henrietta or her cells by name, so the general public knew nothing of HeLa.” (46). Additionally, Henrietta’s betrayal goes further when an article in Colliers magazine errs on facts, and attributes the immortal cells to a ‘Helen L.’ and also states that “. . . Gey had grown Helen L.’s cells from a sample taken after her death, not before.” (81). Henrietta’s cells were harvested when she was alive, unconscious at an operating table at John Hopkins Hospital, and her real name was Henrietta Lacks. Thus, it is clear, that even after the pricelessness of Henrietta’s cells were found, credit, is still denied to her. Henrietta is again denied consent to help the world as Skool observes “. . . She told him she was glad her pain would come to some good for someone.” (52).
Informed consent over the donation, use and credit of the “HeLa” cells are denied time and time to Henrietta Lacks. Skool’s narration shows us how the cells were gotten, and used to change the face of medicine without informed consent from either Henrietta or her immediate family. The blatant lying on the part of George Gey, by asserting the cells were harvested after death, aggravates this denial. Whether by design, or accident, Skool shows us how a woman seeking help in a hospital was denied consent over and over, in the pursuit of medical advancement. In the long run, the “HeLa” cells changed the face of medicine, but these advancements were at the cost of throwing the principle of informed consent out of the window.
Works Cited
Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown, 2010. Print.
