BIOETHICS OF THE HUMAN BODY IN MICHAEL CRICHTON’S NEXT AND REBECCA SKLOOT’S THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS

• Authors: Sýkora Peter
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this essay, I use two literary works from two distinct genres and with two very different narratives – a satirical techno-thriller and a historical non-fiction piece – to show how they can both convey the same bioethical message – donation of human body parts – to their audience. The two books I examine and contrast here are Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) and Michael Crichton’s satirical techno-thriller Next (2006). The main question this article will try to answer is obviously not why The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a carefully researched nonfiction book, belongs on the list of essential works on bioethics , but rather why Next, a satirical techno-thriller that continuously blurs the boundaries between fact and fiction, belongs on the list as well.

Keywords

EN

BIOETHICS; MICHAEL CRICHTON; REBECCA SKLOOT

• Publisher: Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: World Literature Studies
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 66 – 77

Contributors

author

Sýkora Peter

• Centre for Bioethics, Faculty of Arts, University of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, Slovak Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1870-4626

Identifiers

DOI

10.31577/WLS.2024.16.2.6