Theme Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

Within Part Three of the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks there are a few important aspects to be considered. Two things I found important were the general themes of the true meaning of family and exactly as the title says, immortality.

In Chapter 32 Henrietta’s children get to see their mother’s cells for the first time at Hopkins hospital. When entering in the specific room that contained the Hela cells “Deborah and Zakariyya stared at the screen like they’d gone into a trance, mouths open, cheeks sagging. It was the closest they’d come to seeing their mother alive since they were babies” (Skloot, 2010 p. 265). This upsetting moment in the lab at Hopkins highlighted the purpose of Deborah’s quest. She wanted to find out more about

310). Deborah now proceeds to have a positive outlook on how her mother’s cells, truly helped medical science excel to where it is today. If Deborah hadn’t changed her outlook, this all could of lead in a very different direction. By Deborah changing her outlook, this allowed her to stay on good terms with the people who could help her get to learn more about her mother. If she decided to go against her outlook now, Deborah may have never gotten to know the true story about

It talks about the doctors wanting Henrietta’s relatives blood so they could map the human genome. I wonder what the Hela contamination was. How would her relatives blood samples become relevant to this theory? Also, John Moore had almost the same issue as Henrietta, having his cells taken for research without consent. He had signed a form, but the doctor completely misleads him to what it was for. The bright side to this was Moore lived and could raise the awareness to his lawyer, as he started to become suspicious of his frequent visits. This is defiantly a dehumanizing feeling, and I’m concerned because 1988 wasn’t that long ago. Knowing consent still wasn’t a 100% known thing frightens