The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

               I must admit, I enjoyed this week’s reading of Rebecca Skloot’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” very much.  With my busy schedule I was thinking “Oh no, not another 300 page book,” yet this one went quick and I found it entertaining.  I had heard of this book from my sister-in-law who had suggested reading it this summer.   I feel like I could write pages and pages in response to this book, with inquires, criticisms, and intrigues… so I will try to keep my thoughts here brief and concise. 

                While reading this book, I just couldn’t help but feeling “bad” about what happened.  Of course I felt “bad” for the Lacks family, and all the suffering that the scientific experimentation caused.  I felt “bad” for the doctors; for I feel that it was not their intention to cause problems.  I even felt “bad” for Skloot as she tried to help the Lacks Family and piece this puzzle together.  It is one of those situations where I can see both sides… and anyway you look at it, the outcomes are unfortunate.  I can’t imagine being part of the Lacks Family, not knowing what is going on, confused by doctors, dealing with their own grief, and spiraling downward.  The portion of the book where Dr. Hsu went back to Henrietta’s descendents to draw blood for further testing really stuck with me.  Can you imagine being Deborah, never knowing your mother- but knowing that a disease killed her; not knowing if you have the same disease and being contacted by doctors after all of these years.  Then to think the family thought that the blood tests were to see if they had cancer!  Talk about a miscommunication.  And then, waiting, and waiting, and not hearing from the doctors… Basically, that seems like torture. 

                Yes, the HeLa cells have helped many, many people through cancer research, but at what cost?  It seems that Henrietta’s “immortality” caused huge strain on the family.  The members of the Lacks family fell apart, and really never recovered.  You can’t put weighted measure on someone’s life- but in some respect I can’t help but think- was it worth it?  Perhaps some of my hesitation comes from my position in life.  I am not a doctor, not a cancer patient, not a member of the Lacks family.  It is obvious that Henrietta’s immediate family was deeply affected by the situation.  But will her grandchildren be as affected?  Her great grandchildren?  At some point, will the direct familial connection to Henrietta Lacks be lost?  After reading the book, I would have really enjoyed seeing Rebecca Skloot when she came to campus.  The amount of trust that was needed from the family to write this book is incredible.  I feel that Skloot did an excellent job of portraying both sides of the situation and including history, emotion, family dynamic, and science discovery.  I would be curious to hear her answer to the question- was it worth it?  There is no going back now and what’s done is done.  And at the time, it didn’t seem like such a big deal.  Kudos to Skloot for her afterward… I thought it summed up the book nicely and brought the issue into a bigger context.  I’m very interested to hear our class discussion concerning the book!