What Is The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Unethical

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been called “funny, tender”, and “vivid” (Penguin Random House). People have said that “Henrietta Lacks … comes fully alive” (Penguin Random House) in this novel, and it is considered “an amazing story [and is] deeply chilling” by many readers across the globe (Penguin Random House). On the contrary, one Tennessee parent thought that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was too pornographic for her fifteen-year-old son. She made claims to her son’s school that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was “pornographic” and that “it could be told in a different way” (Coder). Jackie Sims did not like how Skloot described Henrietta finding her cervical tumor or how she referenced that Mr. Lacks cheated on his

Sims was that Henrietta’s self-check was wildly inappropriate for high-school students to read in class. What Rebecca Skloot wrote about the situation was in no way sexual, and it certainly was not pornographic. Skloot wrote that “Henrietta slid a finger inside herself and rubbed it across her cervix until she found … a hard lump … as though someone had lodged a marble [inside of her]” (Skloot 15). This section of the paragraph was not referencing any inappropriate acts, and the use of the word “pornographic” was an incredible malapropism. The scene was in no way sexual nor was it written in a way that could portray the scene as sexual. To equate a novel about a family's struggles after their loved one died to pornography is inadmissible. Ms. Sim's claims are simply illogical, as nearly all high schoolers understand how the human body works and they should not take the scene as inappropriate. Rebecca Skloot wrote this segment of the novel in a very respectful way that was not graphic, nor was it unrealistically cold and clinical. She did not use language that sounded like it was referencing other acts; Skloot used words like “slid”, and “rubbed”, but these words are not intentionally inappropriate, they are simply verbs that showed how Henrietta found the tumor. Parents cannot and should not consider a book to be pornographic simply because a particular body part is referenced. In the end, Rebecca Skloot’s description of Henrietta’s

Nature.com stated that the number of scientific output (or the number of scientific papers that researchers publish) double every nine years (Nature.com). This may not seem like a lot, but there are thousands upon thousands of researchers that are constantly producing new content. With the amount of research scientists are producing, it is necessary to remind scientists (and future scientists) that we cannot go back to the times when Henrietta was alive, nor should we repeat horrible studies such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, where 600 men were experimented on in exchange for burial insurance and food (CDC). The Tuskegee Study lasted for 40 years, and even after penicillin was discovered, the men were not given any treatment (CDC). Experiments just like this one could still happen today, but with books like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, people can see what happens to the people in the experiment. Young adults need to learn material like this in school so they can recognize the impact that a cell sample can have on the world and the impact that those cells will have on families. The next time something like the HeLa cell phenomenon occurs, maybe the family members in need will receive the financial compensation they deserve. To sum up, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has the ability to make a massive impact on