What Are The Evils Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

Throughout The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, it is revealed that although science is helpful, it also has its own evils. Scientists stole people’s body parts, injected diseases, and did unnecessary treatments, all without patient consent. Henrietta Lacks was one of these unfortunate people. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Scientists then took those cells and started marketing them and doing experiments with them to come up with cures for various diseases. The family tells an interesting story about what really happened to their beloved family member. This is a phenomenal story of a woman, her cells, and her family. Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer shortly after giving birth to her fifth child. The doctors put …show more content…
Because of this, it is hard to find out what interested me the most. I really enjoyed learning about Henrietta’s background and her family. It was interesting that her daughter discovered there could be a link between her and her siblings disabilities and their cell genetics. She believed the reasons behind all of this was that her parents were first cousins. I also enjoyed learning about what the scientists did with the cells. I love to learn about how you can tamper or make changes to one single cell code and get the craziest outcomes. It was interesting that just through one woman’s cancer cells many cures to diseases and technologies have been discovered. The thing that was probably most shocking was the unsympathetic attitude of reporters and scientists towards the Lacks’. It was sickening to find out that the reason she had this cancer was because of her husband’s affairs. Because of this,David Lacks, her husband, was in my opinion one of the worst characters. He let his children get abused by family members, and he even let his own daughter get molested as a child. on the other hand, Deborah was probably my favorite character because of her strength and determination to find out about her mother and her sister. She spent countless hours trying to educate herself on various subjects. The drive to want to know more really made me respect her character. Along with that, She was selfless. This was displayed when she gave her brother the colored picture of her mother’s chromosomes. This book did a good job of making things vivid and made pictures in your head. The image that stuck with me was during Henrietta’s autopsy one woman said that it looked like her body had been filled with little pearls. Another one was when it talked about her skin being charred from the radiation treatments. I found it interesting yet also disgusting that a human being could put another human being through things like that. This