The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Part 3

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Part 3

     Part 3 of the book examined the ways the family reacted to learning of the incident, as shown when Bobbette Lacks learned about the use and production of her mother-in-law's cells from her friend Gardenia's brother-in-law. The Lacks family's reaction and perspective on the use of HeLa cells is absolutely essential to the book because it adds feeling and meaning to the story. Instead of just stating facts and saying the incident was morally wrong; the author incorporated herself and the family into the story to show their perspective.
     The family didn't know what to think at first; until they learned that Henrietta's cells were being mass produced and were enduring destructive tests such as space flight and radiation from nuclear bombs (Skloot 318). The family seeked answers, and all they got in return was the physicians asking for blood donations from the family so that doctors could work towards mapping the human genome. The Lacks family believed that the doctors contacting them asking for blood was the test that was promised where the physicians would test the family for the sickness that Henrietta had. Due to lack of medical knowledge, the family, especially Deborah, formed an anxiety that they would meet the same fate as Henrietta getting cancer.
     The family was left in the dark about a lot of things; such as the fact that their blood was taken four days before a new federal law would go into effect that would require IRB approval and informed consent for all federally funded research (Skloot 316). When Deborah met with Dr. Mckusick, she asked for him to explain more about cells. Instead of explaining, Dr. McKusick gave her a book he had edited called Medical Genetics. How was a woman from a poor and uneducated family supposed to read scientific literature? Deborah challenged herself to learn about her mother's death. It is not usually considered, but many words and terms may have been difficult for the Lacks family to understand because of their educational background.
     The perspective of the Lacks family is an important piece to the story because it reveals the treatment of the family following one of the greatest contributions to science. The Lacks family was left in the dark about the operation, and the doctors only thought of them as vessels of blood that had great use in discovering more of the human genome.