The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

2015 Read and Response: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Throughout the Lacks’ family history there has been nothing more but absence of information and deceitfulness. The prolonged journey of finding out who exactly Deborah’s mother was and how she changed science was all but easy. One of the most common messages throughout the book was the conflict between individual rights and scientific exploration from high, authoritative figures such as scientists, doctors and the research community. Another is how faith comes into friction with logistics as Rebecca Sloot emphasizes how science may be factual but couldn’t have shown a more mutated effect than religion does on the family. Deborah, the youngest of the Lacks, has gone through what

Back then, there was discrimination against black people and many embraced white supremacy. There weren’t any black doctors and there certainly wasn’t fairness for those of color suffering from illness from infectious diseases to cancer. Nonetheless, doctors took advantage of Henrietta Lacks and her cells by not properly informing the family and speaking to them in a way that was comprehensive. Given the circumstances, discrimination was rampant in that era. Black people were content by simply receiving treatment after all, “Doctors knew best, and most patients didn’t question that” (Sloot 63). The injustice of taking Henrietta’s cells and using them for research without her consent or of her family for that matter; until 20 years later is incomprehensible. Many believe that the history of medical ethics such as the Hippocratic Oath and complying the federal law in protecting human research and confidentiality wasn’t yet recognized. All the same, the Lacks’ family isn’t given credit or acknowledgement for what Henrietta, has contributed to science, known as the HeLa cell line. Henrietta’s

Both Deborah and Henrietta were women of hope. Moreover, hope and faith took part in a much powerful course as something therapeutic and well being. Yet, the Lacks’ family were strong believers of the powers of Christ and the Christian faith, and they believed it was the main reason for Henrietta’s distribution of HeLa cells throughout the country and that the multiplication of cells was all of God’s work. Overall, Deborah and her family uses faith as a filter for welcoming or refusing science’s explanation of the research. Deborah uses faith, not just as an integral part of her life since childhood, but as a way to get through the most strenuous struggles of her life. From Rebecca’s point of view as a believer in science, she no longer is in the background writing mere quotes of the families’ experiences, but must participate in them as well. “This is how it will be when the dead are raised…immortal…there is of course a physical body, so there has to be a spiritual body.” (Sloot 295). Gary, Deborah’s cousin, is a pastor who states he had exchanges with the All Mighty himself, his belief, although it counters Sloot’s, in a sense, describes how science is similar to spirit. In Gary’s theory the power of involving Christ into one’s life and overall cognitive thought process will combat all the negativity and only reveal answers to what one seeks. In this case the Lack’s family has only ever known the