Susan Miller s The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By...

Lin Wells English 114 Debbie Miller Lack of Trust: Patient to Doctor Relationship The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is about a human named Henrietta Lacks who has an extraordinary story. The unruly dispute between the relationship with her personal family members and that of doctors, scientist, and authority figures. When it was discovered that she had cervical cancer Richard TeLinde was collecting cell samples unbeknownst to her or even being asked if she wanted to be a donor. All of the cells would eventually be given to scientist George Guy who spent his whole life on a mission for immortal human cells which came in the form of HeLa. With the only time asking for consent was when they asked David â€Å"Day† Lacks her husband to let them perform an autopsy. That brings up the topic of consent as well as the unspoken trust between patients and their doctors which they take advantage of. As a person multiple factors worked against Henrietta since she was a woman all while being African American. John Moore a white male who had hairy cel l leukemia is another illustration of someone else who had the wool pulled over their eyes by the system. Even when he took the controversy to the courts the judge initially threw out the case with the conclusion of being the Supreme Court ruled against him. Before Skloot got to know the Lacks family there was little to no information about them because they had trust issues due to how were they were treated throughout past