The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Essay

Throughout the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack, the ideas of race and how it affected this medical revolution become quite prevalent. The issue throughout is the idea of the social construction of class being a primary reason why the doctor felt justified to take cells without consent. Discrimination and prejudice come into play as Henrietta is mistreated solely based on her race and status. The hidden reality behind medicine and racism is exposed, how doctors felt it was their job to do this and treat those of color with little to no respect. Skloot manages to immortalize Henrietta in a way different from her cells, her story, now known as one of the largest medical revolutions, allows for the world to get just a glimpse of the mistreatment

As a classification of social stratification, “people are ranked on the basis of achieved characteristics, such as merit, talent, ability, or past performance,” (Ferrante: 186). In all societies, no matter the difference in how they deem class, doctors are always placed at the top and are known to be well-respected in all communities. The doctors whom took Henrietta’s cells without permission did so because they ranked higher in class than she did. With their title as doctors and hers as a poor black woman, there was no reason to have her consent. Henrietta trusted the doctor because he was a doctor; that rank meant something in society, however this ignorance is what brought about the ongoing struggles the rest of the Lacks family were forced to deal with. This idea of class is a skewed idea even today, using trust in order to boost rank into a higher position, not caring for those

Prejudice is a type of “judgment about an out-group that does not change in the face of contradictory evidence and that applies to anyone who shared the distinguishing characteristics,” (Ferrante: 233). Not only does Henrietta suffer the effects of prejudice, her whole family reaps its consequences. The results of prejudice only enhanced the state of poverty that Henrietta was also suffering. She had limited access to basic human necessities and vulnerability to predatory behavior. Even at John Hopkins Hospital, the hospital in which Henrietta underwent treatment and was created for the poor black community, racial segregation meant that black patients didn’t have equal access to health care. Henrietta even admitted, “she, like most black patients, only went to Hopkins when she thought she had no choice,” (Skloot: 16). Henrietta felt forced to go to this certain hospital, where she was met with doctors who had no intention of explaining to her what exactly was happening to her body. Not only was she disrespected because of her financial state, her family was too. Even though their mother is the reason for the world’s largest medical revolution, strangers were given the profits that came off of Henrietta’s cells. Yet Henrietta’s children suffered so significantly, they could not even afford health insurance; for the family of the woman who created a whole new look on the medical field to