Part Three of the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

In Part Three of Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot heavily focuses on the effects that the unknown extraction of Henrietta’s cells had on the Lacks Family, especially Deborah Lacks. In this section, Skloot reveals the research done by her and Deborah and the uncertainty she had with Skloot throughout their travels. The mistrust that Deborah had towards Skloot arises from the deception that has been done to her family by those medically treating and supposedly helping her and the Lacks family.

One event that I found to have similarities to the deception found in the extraction of Henrietta’s cells, is when researchers Victor McKusick and Susan Hsu contacted Henrietta’s husband and children to retrieve samples of their blood for their research. When contacting Day and his children, Hsu nor McKusick informed the Lacks family why their blood was being taken: “Years later, when I asked McKusick if anyone had tried to get informed consent from the Lacks family, he said, ‘I suspect there was no effort to explain anything in great detail.” (Skloot 310). By not informing the Lacks why their blood was being taken, it led them to think that they were being tested for the cancer Henrietta had. This is similar to the situation which Henrietta thought she was only being treated for her cancer but in reality, her physicians were also extracting her cells for research. While awaiting results from her “cancer test,” Deborah panicked and worried about what her results might be and how she hated the idea of leaving her children due to her dying from cancer.

Alongside her fear of dying, Deborah had also feared that the researchers were tricking her and her family by injecting them with the “bad blood” that had killed her mother (Skloot 315). I believe that Deborah’s fear of being deceived by those in power that had been influenced by the similarly racially influenced discourses we discussed found at Tuskegee and the idea we touched on of the lack of informed consent presented to her mother. Deborah’s uncertainty influenced by previous racial discourses and the lack of knowledge being given to her by McKusick and other researchers did nothing but worsen Deborah’s stress. This would guide the mistrust she would continue to have with people interested in her mother story, like Rebecca Skloot.