How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #10
Scientists wanted to grow cellular clones—lines of cells descended from individual cells—so they could harness those unique traits. With HeLa, a group of scientists in Colorado succeeded, and soon the world of science had not only HeLa but also its hundreds, then thousands, of clones. (100)
Skloot explains that individual cells in a single body, while similar, make their own proteins and behave differently. It was important for scientists to be able to isolate desirable traits and copy them for future use. But cellular cloning is quite a different thing than making a Xerox copy of a complete human being. The confusion over this led Deborah to suffer a lot of anxiety about the "cloning" of her mother.
Quote #11
I later learned that while Elsie was at Crownsville, scientists often conducted research on patients there without consent, including one study titled "Pneumoencephalographic and skull X-ray studies in 100 epileptics [...]. " Pneumoencephalography involved drilling holes into the skulls of research subjects, draining the fluid surrounding their brains, and pumping air or helium into the skull in place of the fluid to allow crisp X-rays of the brain through the skull. (275-276)
Skloot uncovers the nature of the scientific experiments at the institution where Elsie lived until her death in 1955, all conducted without consent of the family or the patient. She also assumes that Elsie was probably a subject in these horrific experiments, since she was one of the patients with epilepsy. The takeaway from all this? These abuses happened because no one cared about the marginalized and "inferior" patients of Crownsville. Alexis Carrel would have approved.