Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

In the memoir, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the author Rebecca Skloot reveals the life story of Henrietta Lacks and her cells’ revolutionary impact on the medical industry, while also raising concern about the greater underlying social issues consistent in Western medicine. The memoir follows the life of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman living with cancer in 1950s America, and the theft and utilization of her cells after her death. Skloot also writes about the ripple effects HeLa cells have on her family and the injustice they continue to face today. The memoir, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks sheds light upon the importance of bioethics and informed consent while calling attention to the anti-feminist and racist past of post-colonial

As a woman of colour receiving healthcare in segregated America, Henrietta Lacks is biopsied without her knowledge and consent. Lacks’ white male doctors, TeLinde and Wharton, steal samples of Henrietta’s although “no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor” (Skloot 33). Lacks’ theft of biological identity exposes the audience to the overall conflict of the lack of informed consent throughout the memoir. During this period, it is common for rich white men to exploit poor black people, specifically black women, for the enrichment of so-called ‘white medicine’. Henrietta’s doctors, TeLinde and Wharton, symbolize the sexist and racist role of doctors in keeping America segregated, by “[experimenting] on the sick bodies of women of colour … to heal white women” (Owens 111), for the betterment of one race and the sacrifice of

As the Lacks children advance into adulthood, Skoot captures their continued mistrust in the medical industry after the uninformed utilization of their mother’s cells. According to professors Mamadi Corra and Scott Carter, medical mistrust amongst the black community is “rooted in the negative experiences of blacks with slavery and racial discrimination in America” (Corra and Carter 56), providing traumatic reasoning to the black resentment of seeking medical care. Almost fifty years after the death of Henrietta, and great pushes for equality within the medical community, Lacks’ son Sonny refuses to see doctors for his gangrene as “he didn't want doctors cutting on him like they did Henrietta … he swore he’d never do it” (Skloot 163). The inability of Henrietta Lacks’ descendants to seek medical help symbolizes the generational trauma evident amongst many black individuals receiving healthcare in America based on racist experiences exhibited by people of colour in the medical