“Like many doctors of his era, TeLinde often used patients from the public wards for research, usually without their knowledge. Many scientists believed that since patients were treated for free in the public wards, it was fair to use them as research subjects as a form of payment”
Page 29 (The actual story begins on page 15) This line gives a clear introduction to one of the main dilemmas in the story: the medical malpractice of doctors of the time. This idea that doctors would commonly take advantage of the patients in public wards is what Skloot spends a lot of time arguing against. The final phrase in this paragraph uses the term “believed” to allude to how this train of thought is now incorrect. If the author had instead used a different word, understood for example, the audience may have not focused on the wrongfulness of these acts. There is also great meaning derived from the usage of “usually” ; the casualiness of this word alludes to the casualiness in which these doctors took advantage of their patients. There is an odd moral dilemma associated with this quote however, as the paragraph previous to this quote discussing TeLinde’s intention on saving lives with this research. It begs the question on whether the mistreatment of Henrietta’s cells was worth it. “But Henrietta’s cells weren’t merely surviving, they were growing with mythological intensity. By the next morning they’d doubled. Mary divided the contents of each tube into two, giving them room to grow, and within twenty-four hours, they’d doubled again. Soon she was dividing them into four tubes, then six. Henrietta’s cells grew to fill as much space as Mary gave them” Page 40 This is a great turning point in the novel, as well as a great representation of Skloot’s writing style. The phrase “growing with mythological intensity” uses purposefully powerful words in order to demonstrate how momentous the growing of Henrietta’s cells was in the world of science. It proves why this book was written about Henrietta’s cells and what makes them special. The paragraph is also a good example of Skloot mixing the scientific aspect with Henrietta’s storyline. Skloot uses basic wording to explain a scientific occurrence in order to make the book understandable for a larger audience, which gives a greater voice to Henrietta’s struggle. “[Elsie Lacks] died at 15, soon after Henrietta’s death. Deborah is the only daughter left,” he said. “She came near a stroke recently because of the agony she’s gone through regarding inquiries into her mother’s death and those cells. I won’t be a part of anyone doing that to her again.” Page 51 Since this quote is of a conversation, there is not much to unpack about word choice, but there space to wonder why Skloot chose to include it. This conversation unveils the struggle the family has gone through since the cells gained the public’s interest. It is important to recognize that the issue isn’t just the mistreatment of Henrietta, but her entire family as well. This conversation also builds likeability for the whole Lacks family, as the discussion of their hardships builds sympathy. A good way to get readers to like a character is to have bad things happen to them. Skloot uses this tactic efficiently in this paragraph. It is also important to note that the speaker was a student of Gey’s, and his sympathy for the Lacks family represents a change in beliefs about how the situation should have been handled in the medical community. “Doctors knew best, and most patients didn’t question that. Especially black patients in public wards. This was 1951 in Baltimore, segregation was law, and it was understood that black people didn’t question white people’s professional judgement. Many black patients were just glad to be getting treatment, since discrimination in hospitals was so widespread” Page 64 This paragraph refers to why Henrietta didn’t tell her doctors she thought her condition was more serious. This passage blatantly calls on the racism in the time as a possible reason for why Henrietta didn’t get the proper treatment for her condition. The most evident word choice was in the final line of the passage discussing how African-Americans of the time “were just glad to be getting treatment”. This line alludes to the great difficulties Henrietta had to deal with to even see a doctor, and it better demonstrates that Henrietta likely felt like she was already lucky with what she had and didn’t want to question it. This explanation of the historical realities of the time gives greater insight into Henrietta’s mind. “Now I don’t know for sure if a spirit got Henrietta or if a doctor did it,” Cootie said, “but I do know that her cancer wasn’t no regular cancer, cause regular cancer don’t keep on growing after a person die.” Page 82 The fact that Skloot used the dialogue directly from a Cootie, a relative of Henrietta’s, demonstrates the emphasis that Skloot wanted to put on the family’s lack of knowledge about Henrietta’s cancer. By having it come directly from Cootie in his colloquial dialect allows for the reader to truly grasp the extent of information is missing for the family. This demonstrates how poorly the situation had been handled by the hospital and the media, as no one had the time to properly explain to the Lacks what had happened to Henrietta. “Black scientists and technicians, many of them women, used cells from a black woman to help save the lives of millions of Americans, most of them white. And they did so on the same campus-and at the very same time-that state officials were conducting the infamous Tuskegee syphilis studies.” Page 97 This passage points out the grand irony of the HeLa cells, that while the lives of a great deal of Americans, and white Americans at that, were being saved by the work done by African-Americans, the state officials still did experiments on African-Americans as though they were animals. It is an important distinction that Skloot makes in this chapter. The chapter focuses on all of the good done by Henrietta’s cells and the growth in the scientific world because of it, yet there was little growth in the countries perception of African-American people. The work done by African-Americans was cherished, yet they still were regarded as lesser. “A good handful of cousins still think Ethel moved into that house and started up with Day just to get out all the hate she had for Henrietta by torturing her children.” Page 111 Skloot uses the term “torturing” to exemplify just how tragic the lives of Henrietta’s children became once she passed. Though it’s not exacting included in this quote, the entirety of this chapter shows just how difficult life because for the Lacks kids after her death. Since Day needed to work extra time to provide for his family, the kids fell into the care of Ethel, a woman who refused to feed the children and abused them often. There is irony in the idea that the research the HeLa cells was apart of was earning great sums of money, yet the family was living in squalor and was put into the care of a nasty woman because their father needed to make money for them. “Scientists said medical research was doomed. In a letter to the editor of Science, one of them warned, “When we are prevented from attempting seemingly innocuous studies of cancer behavior in humans...we may mark 1996 as the year in which all medical progress ceased.” Page 135 (The letter is written in response to testing on patients must be done with their knowing consent) The use of the term doom exemplified just how reliant the scientists were on testing on patients. Skloot follows her explanation of the scientists feelings with an actual, dramatic letter from a scientist at the time, proving that she is not exaggerating with her use of doomed. It further proves her point that the use of patient specimens was considered a regular practice, because scientists became outraged when it was taken away. “As Deborah worked two jobs and struggled to settle into her new life as a single mother, she had no idea she was about to get news that would be harder than anything Cheetah had done” Page 150 Skloot builds suspense here, as she is close to finally describing how the family found out about the HeLa cells and how that affected the Lacks altogether. She uses the comparison of Cheetah’s actions, being a single mother, and working two jobs to prove just how difficult the realization of the HeLa cells was going to be. “But Stevenson and a few other scientists realized the potential scope of the HeLa contamination problem, so they began working to develop genetic tests that could specifically identify HeLa cells in culture instead of just testing for the presence of G6PD-A. And those genetic tests would eventually lead them to Henrietta’s family.” Page 157 Here Skloot makes a smooth transition from the science surrounding the HeLa cells to the life of the family. She talks about the scientific issues with refined vocabulary, but she remains understandable to the average person. Going into depth about why scientists contacted the Lacks family makes the story overall more well rounded. “Some of the stories were conjured by white plantation owners taking advantage of the long-held African belief that ghosts caused disease and death. To discourage slaves from meeting or escaping, slave owners told tales of gruesome research done on black bodies, then covered themselves in white sheets and crept around at night, posing as spirits coming to infect black people with disease or steal them for research” Page 166 After the Lacks family suggested that Henrietta had been captured by a hospital and experimented on while she was alive, Skloot researched this phenomenon. While this research isn’t essential to the story, it proves the Skloot respects the families viewpoints and put lots of effort into researching the entirety of the story. This quote also could be considered a parallel example of African-Americans being taken advantage of for the benefit of more powerful white people. Skloot perhaps makes an unintentional comparison of the two and how they affected the Lacks. “But Deborah couldn’t stop worrying. She was terrified that she might have cancer, and consumed with the idea that researchers had done-and perhaps were still doing- horrible things to her mother.” Page 186 Here Skloot elaborates on how the poor explanations of the scientists affected the Lacks family. The scientists failed to describe the point of the blood samples they wanted and the purpose of the HeLa cells, and this caused Deborah to misinterpret what they have told her. She struggled greatly with the fears she developed after her interactions with the scientists; Skloot’s use of “terrified” and “consumed with” demonstrate the extent of Deborah’s fear. Skloot’s simplifying of the issue also build a dislike towards the scientists, as it seems as though the situation was so easy to fix if they had just cared a bit more about the family and taken the time to talk to them. “Ironically, in his decision, the judge cited the HeLa cell line as a precedent for what happened with the Mo cell line. The fact that no one had sued over the growth or ownership of the HeLa cell line, he said, illustrated that patients didn’t mind when doctors took their cells and turned them into commercial products.” Page 204 The use of this small piece of information concerning the Mo cell line case gives a great portrayal of the lack of public knowledge of the Henrietta Lacks case. The judge believing that no one sued over the HeLa cell line simply because they didn’t mind it proves that the situation with the Lacks family wasn’t acknowledged by any of the people had interacted with the case. No one had looked into the family situation far enough to see the family’s discontent; they were simply disregarded. Skloot uses this idea to further prove just how little respect was given to the Lacks. “In the ten-page chapter that followed, Gold quoted extensively from her medical records: the blood spotting her underwear, the syphilis, her rapid decline. No one in Henrietta’s family had ever seen these medical records, let alone given anyone at Hopkins permission to release them to a journalist for publication in a book the whole world could read.” Page 213 Skloot again references the lack of respect given to the Lacks family. The idea that a reporter “quoted extensively” from medical records that “No one in Henrietta’s family had ever seen” supports the idea that there was no focus on the personal privacy of patients and their families. Skloot uses the phrase “let alone” to stress that giving permission was a long ways away from happening for the Lacks. “‘They did that cloning on my mother over there,’ she said, surprised I hadn’t come across that fact in my research. “A reporter came here from England talking about how they cloned a sheep. Now they got stuff about cloning my mother all over.” Page 237 Skloot uses Deborah’s exact words to describe a misinterpretation about Henrietta’s cells in order to put emphasis on just how poorly the family understood the situation. By having the conversation as a quotation, there isn’t much room for Skloot to exaggerate on the topic. She allows the shock of the statement to speak for itself. “‘Them doctors say her cells is so important and did all this and that to help people. But it didn’t do no good for her, and it don’t do no good for us. If me and my sister need something, we can’t even go see a doctor cause we can’t afford it.”’ Page 247 Joe/Zakariyya points out what Rebecca is clearly trying to prove, the idea the the medical community made a great profit and great strides based off of what they took from Henrietta. The reason Skloot included this line is to prove that the family is aware they have been taken advantage of, which explains their great anger towards the medical community. “‘I still want to go see them cells,’ Deborah said, sobbing. ‘I ain’t gonna let this stop me from learning about my mother and my sister.” Page 258 Skloot includes the scene in which Deborah hears about her son’s arrest in order to demonstrate just how important Henrietta still is to the family. While Deborah is “sobbing” over her son’s arrest, she still is determined to see her mother’s cells. Skloot proves that Henrietta is still deeply important to the family. “I later learned that while Elsie was at Crownsville, scientists often conducted research on patients there without consent, including one study titled “Pneumoencephalographic and skull X-ray studies in 100 epileptics.”” Page 275 By including this fact, Skloot draws a parallel between the life of Elsie and the life of Henrietta. While there was great focus put on Henrietta’s cells being testing on without her permission, Elsie was also apart of similar, likely more damaging, experimentation. The inclusion of this brings to the light the idea that while Henrietta’s case has been brought to light, there are plenty of other cases just like it that have no story to be found. “‘John Hopkins took my wife’s mother’s body and used what they needed,’ he yelled into the microphone. ‘They sold her cells all over the world! Now I’m gonna have Sister Rebecca Skloot come and talk about what she doing with my wife and them cells.”’ Page 303 (The person talking is Deborah’s second husband) This line is very important as it shows the growth of the family throughout the novel. While at first they wanted nothing to do with reporters, and more specifically Rebecca, they began to trust her and become more comfortable with talking about Henrietta. The idea that Rebecca was called to the front of the church to discuss Henrietta shows her new relationship with the family and the trust they have in her. This line epitomizes the light that Skloot brought to the family about Henrietta’s life; not only are they willing to talk about it and learn about it, they are willing to discuss it openly with others and finally seek justice for Henrietta.
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