Theme Of Personhood In The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

The documented definition of a person is very ambiguous. Merriam-Webster defines a person as “a human being”. This answer leaves much to the imagination, particularly with the case of Henrietta Lacks and her cells. After I analyzed this prompt, I reached a conclusive definition: a person should be referred to as “one who has a lucid connection between physical self and self identity. A being without any self awareness or comprehension of the psychology of humankind cannot be constituted as a person.” Personhood is made up of key elements including perception of human nature and conscious knowledge of one's own character, feelings, motives, and desires.

Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks raises the question of what Personhood is but leaves the answer up to the audience, for there is no precise explanation to define the quality of being an individual person. However, several different opinions on what constitutes a person can help establish an answer to the question of personhood. In chapter 33, The Hospital for the Negro Insane, the discovery of what happened to Elsie is particularly affecting; Skloot writes, “based on the number of patients listed in the pneumoencephalography study…it most likely included every epileptic child in the hospital, including Elsie. The same is likely true for at
I consider Gey’s decision completely ethical because when George Gey took Henrietta’s cells, Henrietta was no longer a person. While death does not mean you are no longer a being, it means that you no longer have a connection between physical and mental self. Due to the loss of this, there is no moral conflict to acquire her cells. However, the most controversial decision was in not telling the family about her contributions to science in a way they would