The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

The issue of privacy has been one dating back to the beginning of society. In order to protect it we have erected walls around us and called them homes, fences and called them territories, borders and called them countries. As the modern day arrived, society innovated to the point that ownership and privacy are no longer clear. Science has developed at a rate where morals and laws cannot keep up, more specifically, in the medical department. Such a problem is detailed in Rebecca Skloot’s book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. In it, privacy is breached through the intimacy of the text itself and the events in which Henrietta’s cells were harvested without her consent then used to build a multimillion dollar industry. Over the years and

In the first chapter of the book, Skloot writes that “Henrietta slid a finger inside herself and rubbed it across her cervix until she found [...] a hard lump…” (Skloot 15). The detail that the author describes the situation is vulgar to a degree that most keep to themselves, as it is talking about a very personal aspect of someone’s life- their body. Consequently, the book itself is in and of itself a breach of privacy, not from a legal perspective but from a social and moral one. Furthermore, the person whomst is being written about passed away long before the book was written, meaning there was no direct consent from the Henrietta even if her family approved of it. If she was still alive, she may not have wanted such detail in her biography. Skloot’s accuracy was a means in order to maintain a sense of reality in her text- no sugar coating- so that the reader can have the closest idea to an unbiased view. Whether the theft was justified by saving numerous lives or not is up to the audience. The biography doesn’t only breach Henrietta's privacy, but also recites the story of how her cells were