Brief Summary Of The Book 'Henrietta Lacks'

This novel goes through the story of a woman named Henrietta Lacks. The book is based of her story that started with a cancer that was discovered in her when she thought she was possibly pregnant because of a feeling of a knot on her cervix. Although she wasn't pregnant they did find out she had a cervical cancer. Little did she know that some of her cancer tissue was removed and sent to George Gey’s lab in Hopkins. The scientist there, one named Gey , have been trying to get human cells to divide infinitely for a long time. This was all done without the permission of Henrietta nor any of her family members. Good for the lab the sample did start to divide and very fast, sadly Henrietta at the age of 31 she the fight against her cancer was over. Her husband David later allowed Ethel and Galen, a cousin and wife, to move into
their home to take care of Joe and Deborah the two children. Little did David or “Day” as they call him in the novel know that the cousins were very abusive to the children. Galen even would sexually abuse Deborah. Later their older brother Lawrence moves in with his girlfriend he asked to have take in his younger brother and sister. Even though they did move away from Galen and Ethel they were just not raised right and Joe ended up going to jail for murder and Deborah married at a young age and had an abusive marriage. While Deborah was a teenager she found out about her older sister Elsie who died in an insane hospital cause she suffered from congenital syphilis and lack of being able to hear or even speak.
Deborah also learns of her moms cells being called HeLa cells. Soon the family gets calls from the lab asking for their blood for an issue they were having with the spread of the HeLa cells. The Lacks family had no knowledge of what the cells where though or where they came from. The researchers also kept it that way cause they knew the huge amounts of profit they were making from it all. This was all bad because the way the family saw it they believed Henrietta was still alive and was being tested on in many labs and also because they have been living in poverty when what they don't know is they could be rich! Skloot the author of the book gets untangled in the story as she helps Deborah uncover the truth of her her mom and sister Elsie. They find out sad news of Elsie actually dying alone and was abused in the hospital she was in. Skloot also ends up answering the questions over their mother and how she contributed to medical research to change the
world. Sadly she wasn't able to make the researchers or labs repair the their life's she does put together a foundation letting people know about the family's story and helping them financially with their life's. This novel shows the unethical things some medical doctors or even any other professionals do to those who have done a lot to change the world without there knowing. It was a very good book in the fact that it had a very attention catching story of a family that went through so much and didn't really notice how much there life's could have been different. That is also why I must say it was also a sad novel knowing all the situations this family went through when they could have been living a great life knowing their mom changed the world. She didn't just die a normal day to day person but instead a hero to many. The ethics where just not even looked at in the researchers minds in this novel. That in a sense kinda terrifies me. What if this were to happen to me in my family. What if someone used your family's DNA or even maybe even a bussniess idea or invention idea? They just used it and profited millions of dollars and you were the reason why and you never got any credit for it in the beginning of it all? Doesn't that thought terrify you knowing that people could actually have an idea or mindset to do that to another human being without a care in the world? Or even without knowing what there life situation looks like? Just imagine how much better the life's of those abused children's life could have been different. Joe might have not gone to jail and Deborah might have had a great marriage and would have never been through the sexual abuse she went through. For that reason this novel I believe had a big impact in the way the reader will see ethics for the rest of their life's.