The Inmortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

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Recommended: Critical book review essay on The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

In chapter 35, Rebecca and Deborah travel to Clover. Deborah in the middle of an allergy attack insists on Rebecca taking pictures in front of places with a picture of Elsie. She even stops and takes a picture with Elsie where she assumes her mother's grave is saying it will be the only picture in the world of all three of us together. They visit Gladys and her son Gary, and Deborah explains that she know realizes that though her time with her mother was short, she had a mother. And know she knows so much about her and her sister. Deborah begins to explain all the things her mother has done for science but is only making her allergic reaction worse. She paces the room and can not sit still. Out loud you can see she is trying to process all the information she has learned about her mother and sister. Gary performs a little prayer circle to have the Lord lift the burden Deborah is feeling from all this new information. After Gary squeezes her to no end, they leave to get a soul cleanse.
In chapter 36, Rebecca returns to Clover to speak with Gary. Rebecca explains that a part of a song sung yesterday is stuck in her head. Gary tells her that its the Lord's way of telling her something. He gives her a bible asking her to read a section out loud. Gary explains that like the passage states Henrietta was chosen to do the Lord's work and that is why she lives on. He believes that HeLa cells are Henrietta's spiritual body. Rebecca now understands how the Lacks family believes that Henrietta is alive in the cells. Their proof is found in between those pages. To them the Bible is their answer to why she still “lives”. In chapter 37, Deborah escapes death because it seems that her reaction was stress that almost lead her to a stroke. Debor...

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...those parents who brag about their kids til the cows come home for doing the simplest things. Their kid is like every other kid just like Henrietta is like every other person. She could have been an amazing person but I don't know her. Rebecca did not know here. The only thing that remains is her cells which don't seem to be giving us any insight on whether or not she had a good sense of humor or if she was nice. Hopefully class discussion will enlighten me because I'm not seeing it. I understand her cells did something for science and that's amazing. But her cells are just objects being tested on, the scientist who cured this, or created vaccines for that and other breakthroughs should be recognized. Yes without her the breakthroughs might not have happened. But there were breakthroughs before her time and even without HeLa I'm sure science would have continued.

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