American History

[nytempsperdu]

As it happens, I do share a characteristic with Deborah in that my mother died when I was 6 mo. old and I have almost no information about her.  I thought Skloot did a beautiful job of making the reader understand Deborah and others in the family/community, but I can't personalize that enough to imagine my own reaction to learning anything like what Deborah learned about her mother, there are just too many differences.  I do hope I would arrive at a state of mind like hers when she said "Like I'm always telling my brothers, if you gonna go into history, you can't do it with a hate attitude.  You got to remember times was different." (p. 276)

But the questions the Skloot book raised for me were of a different kind altogether, such as
Who owns our bodies and at what age does ownership vest?  Does the concept of ownership apply to tissue, cells, DNA?   What about tissue extracted in medical procedures, medical waste, body waste?   Hey, what if something beneficial to humankind was found present in body waste--do the public sewage systems have ownership once we flush? HA!  And what if it were not waste products but breast milk, or something common to all humans but the beneficial kind was only present in a particular group?   Some serious socio-economic-political hoo-hah there!!! 

Wake up out there you sci-fi writers, filmmakers!!!!

As for the individual vs. the group, if ownership applies, does the individual have the right to assert such, and perhaps deny access to those who could use them to make something useful/beneficial/necessary to the general welfare.  What power would the state have to compel the individual to surrender the cells/tissues/body product in the public interest?    

See what keeps me occupied when I'm sleepless?

[weezo]

NYTemp,

Our subconscious minds are quite a distance apart! Once I'm done with something, it is no longer mine. Yet, I feel that the researchers could have learned the deep poverty Henrietta Lack's descendants lived in and offered the family a banquet on the yacht now and then .... Seriously, lifetime service at Johns Hopkins would be a welcome prize for having the Mom with the Mostest!

Speaking of mostest, Archway, Iced Molasses, soft snacking cookies...... addictive!

[madupont]

Maddie, it is Miss Anne  not Miss Ann .... Miss Ann is my friend in Buffalo.

I would not be doing fair by my web audience if I did not check out if the family wants to be kept abreast of what is going on.

There is more than one way to "do" history. Yes, read as many books as interest you. Check for further information online. But sometimes you gotta get you boots muddy and tread the ground.

No, but you may have forgotten telling us that you  are Anne Pemberton.  Miss Ann, however, is something else. In case you never heard the expression, perhaps you better know it before you go calling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuEc-nFULY8&feature=related

[bosox18d]

So Mad goes on ignore with the other wack job asshole.Have fun.

[weezo]

Maddie, it is Miss Anne  not Miss Ann .... Miss Ann is my friend in Buffalo.

No, but you may have forgotten telling us that you  are Anne Pemberton.  Miss Ann, however, is something else. In case you never heard the expression, perhaps you better know it before you go calling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuEc-nFULY8&feature=related

Funny, but what does this have to do with American History in literature?

What you DON'T know about African American culture in southside VA would fill volumes.

[Westwood]

One more from the grand old man.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/after-keeping-us-waiting-for-a-century-mark-twain-will-finally-reveal-all-1980695.html