Henrietta Lacks - Part One

After reading the prologue to this story, I was left with many questions, as I had never heard anything on Henrietta Lacks or her cells prior to this class. Something that absolutely baffled me was the fact that her family did not give consent for her cells to be used, yet they were taken and used regardless. This left me wondering how this could happen, did nobody care that the doctors were doing this since she was black? And how is this still going on when, clearly, the family is still not in support of this? Is it because they do not have the financial means to sue? Is it because there are now so many of her cells that it is impossible to stop at this point? 

Digging into the first couple chapters of the book, I was very intrigued by the different aspects of Henrietta's life. It left me with even more questions, however. For example, when we learned that Henrietta didn't go to her follow up doctor appointments because she felt uncomfortable walking into hospitals - is this another example of a race issue, similar to the ones we discussed before in class? Did she feel so uncomfortable partially because the doctors did not look like her? I was also very shocked at her marrying her cousins and the fact that she and her siblings were all divided out amongst family members. Keeping in mind that this is a completely different time frame, I question if this was still a unique situation or if giving up your children and marrying your cousin was a normal thing. 

Towards the end of Part One, I thought it was shocking the visuals readers were given. At the beginning of the book, it states that Henrietta was about five foot tall. Here, it tells us that she was originally 140 pounds, a healthy weight for her height. The book then states that her weight had dropped 40 pounds, but that her stomach had swelled, making her look 6 months pregnant. It goes on to describe her facial features, giving us more of a visual of just how much pain she was in.