Cells are very important to all human beings because they contain all genetic information for us to pass on to our offspring, without cells we would be nothing. Rebecca Skloot wrote, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” which is an effective story because she’s discovering data about Henrietta Lacks and her family and, telling the truth but not letting her feelings get in the way. Rebecca Skloot argues that the Lacks family should be compensated for the HeLa cells because doctors and researchers used her cells without her or her family’s consent. Henrietta Lacks stays unknown to the public even though her cells are famous throughout the world so people should be educated about her. Besides, she makes a successful argument because throughout the book she keeps it engaging by sharing plenty of anecdotes and background.
First and foremost, Rebecca Skloot explains how the Lacks family was never told about the experiment that Henrietta’s cells went through as well as the failure to get any form of consent from Henrietta to experiment with her cells. They strongly believed that they deserved compensation from the commercializing of Henrietta’s cells. During the interviews Rebecca Skloot became close with Deborah which created an argument to why the Lacks family deserved compensation. She explains how the family thought that they were being taken advantage of because the never received any compensation from the medical companies that were becoming very rich because of the mass distribution of HeLa cells. Skloot wanted us to learn that the ethics during this time regarding medical consent were not developed enough and the Lacks deserve compensation.
However, while Henrietta Lacks was never aware of her remarkable body, nor was her family members weren’t allowed to recap any of the benefits of their lost relation. She went to John Hopkins to see a doctor because she was sick. She found out that she had terminal cancer and soon died from her cancer. During her treatment, her cells from her body were taken. They were found to be mutagenic or something different because of a mutation from normal human cells. Henrietta Lack’s story is where human beings must question where the line is drawn on their rights. During the time, researchers did not have consent to take her cells nor did they protect her dignity by providing her with doctor-patient confidentiality. Indeed, everyone should have the right to human dignity, but humans have been robbed of that right just because they have had the misfortune to die.
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Additionally, Skloot wrote this story to help the public understand the story of Henrietta Lacks, her children, and the impact of Henrietta’s cells in science. Rebecca Skloot uses logos throughout the book to give a historical background of science, the medical system, and the role that African-Americans played in the time period that Henrietta fought her battle with cervical cancer. By listing the contributions of Henrietta’s cells and explaining them in-depth, Rebecca Skloot enforces the idea that science would not be where it is now without the HeLa cells. Rebecca Skloot describes the backgrounds and contributions of researchers, scientists, and patients with cells who were alive during the same situations as the HeLa cell situation or involved in it. She also wrote that to help the public understand why the debate of informed consent and giving the patient the over their tissue cells was so controversial. Rebecca Skloot also accomplishes this by providing facts from people on both sides of the debate.
Nevertheless, Rebecca Skloot also uses pathos to build her argument. In Henrietta’s medical record, one of her doctors said that she could not have any more children. The doctor claims that if they would have told Henrietta this fact before her treatment, then she would not have gone through with the treatment. Sadly, by the time she found out, it was too late for Henrietta to do anything. When Henrietta moved in with her uncle, she found love with her cousin Day and soon they both started a family. She loved children and wanted many of them. Most women have this want but a lot of them can’t have children. The fact that Rebecca Skloot added this is very important because it appeals to pathos or emotion. Around the world, children are so important to most women. Here, Rebecca Skloot adds to this to make us feel sympathy for Henrietta because she can no longer have babies.
Finally, Rebecca Skloot uses reliable resources to find information about HeLa and about Henrietta. She includes everyone’s names, interviews, and a timeline with specific people in the scientific community. She provides pictures in the middle of the novel to give readers with a personal connection with the family. This helps show that Rebecca Skloot as a reliable source for information on Henrietta, her family, and her cells by providing presenting the author in a trustworthy and credible light.
Therefore, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a good book about the advancements of science and the unsung faces behind it. It’s a thought-provoking book that brings humans rights and the boundaries of science into the question with the way Henrietta’s cells were being sold without her or her family’s permission. Henrietta Lacks spent her life fighting for her family and herself. She was put through months of pain trying to reduce the spread of her cancer without the proper amount of pain medication, which made her suffer through a long painful death. During those months, she had parts of her body, her genetic makeup, taken from her without her knowledge or consent.
These cells made history, being sent from country to country, researcher to researcher, yet neither she nor her family received any credit for more than ten years after her death and never received any compensation from their mothers’ cells. The family has been harassed with questions over the decade, from researchers to just everyday people wanting to get their share of the story. Henrietta has made a dramatic impact on the scientific field. She had also made an impact on her community through leadership. Her legacy has remained alive in the science world and will remain in that position for many years to come.
