8+ paper examples, study guides & outlines
Henrietta Lacks is a figure studied across multiple disciplines, including bioethics, medical history, sociology, and literature courses. She is widely known because her cancer cells, taken without her consent in the early 1950s, became the HeLa cell line — one of the most consequential biological tools in modern medicine. Her story raises profound questions about race, class, informed consent, and the ownership of human tissue, making it a rich subject for academic inquiry. Rebecca Skloot's book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks serves as a central text in many courses, providing both a narrative framework and a foundation for critical analysis of how medical institutions have historically treated vulnerable patients and their families.
Student papers on this topic take several distinct approaches. Many offer analytical readings of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, examining Skloot's narrative choices and the ethical dimensions she surfaces. Others focus specifically on the ethical issues surrounding consent, patient rights, and the use of HeLa tissue in research. Some essays adopt a case-study approach, using Henrietta Lacks's story to evaluate broader research ethics and privacy concerns, while others center the experience of the Lacks family to explore how researchers and institutions engaged — or failed to engage — with them over decades.
A strong essay on this topic grounds its thesis in a specific, arguable claim, such as how the Lacks case exposed systemic failures in patient consent practices. Evidence drawn from the documented experiences of Henrietta, her family, and researchers carries particular weight. A common pitfall is summarizing the story rather than analyzing it — strong papers move beyond retelling events to interrogate the ethical, legal, or social implications those events reveal.