"Like many doctors of his era, TeLinde often used patients from the public ward for research, usually without their knowledge."
I believe this to be the sentence that, essentially, captures the theme of the book. While we already know that Henrietta is going to have cancer & die, this story also questions the morals of science. To experiment on a human being without their knowledge is unethical & wrong but here, in the time period of this book, it seems almost barbaric the way they go about things.
The way they treated patients at this time is similar to what I find animals are treated like in testing, While there are those who go about it in a more humanitarian sense, there are others who abuse animals. Not to say that Henrietta was not treated well but there certainly is an unfairness about the situation, this woman helping science years after her death without her family having any knowledge is ridiculous. Not only that, the idea that signing a consent form to have a surgery done seems to be equivalent with agreeing to have ones self experimented on.
I don't have any questions about the story that I won't find in the book reading further.
I believe this to be the sentence that, essentially, captures the theme of the book. While we already know that Henrietta is going to have cancer & die, this story also questions the morals of science. To experiment on a human being without their knowledge is unethical & wrong but here, in the time period of this book, it seems almost barbaric the way they go about things.
The way they treated patients at this time is similar to what I find animals are treated like in testing, While there are those who go about it in a more humanitarian sense, there are others who abuse animals. Not to say that Henrietta was not treated well but there certainly is an unfairness about the situation, this woman helping science years after her death without her family having any knowledge is ridiculous. Not only that, the idea that signing a consent form to have a surgery done seems to be equivalent with agreeing to have ones self experimented on.
I don't have any questions about the story that I won't find in the book reading further.