Henrietta Lacks Justice

The movie does not do Henrietta Lacks justice, and neither has almost anyone who has came in contact with her cells. Henrietta Lacks and the whole Lacks family suffered so much and continue to suffer today, especially financially. A struggle that could have been resolved by many culprits mentioned in the book. Abundant amounts of people have different thoughts on whether or not the family's opinions or Henrietta's consent mattered, but there is no doubt that some type of justice should have been served.

Henrietta Lacks life was not ideal to say the least. Her mother died when she was little and was raised with many other small relatives. She married her cousin day, and had a mentally challenged daughter( could have been from the incest). She died from cancer and doctors took her cells from her before and

after she died. Mr.Gey in particular took advantage of Henrietta’s cells and used them for his own scientific purposes. Once he had discovered that the cells were immortal, he sent them to other scientist so they could do their own experiments. Without the families knowledge it started to be grown and shipped by a now billion dollar industry.
The reporter writing and discovering all about this talked about the whole families lives.

From Deborah(the youngest daughter of Henrietta and Day) who was constantly molested by her “caretakers” husband, then impregnated at 16 and later abused by her husband. Deborah who had to expose herself to odd jobs in order for her children to be fed. Deborah managed to deal with many health conditions during her life (such as hearing problems), but while reading it seems none of those mattered while she learned about her mother and sister Elsie. Aside from Deborah we also learned about her brother Zakkariya who got the worst of her “caretakers” wrath. Abused daily caused Zakkariya to be aggressive. While he served in the military he often argued with others. Once out, after an altercation killed a man named Ivy in cold blood but only had to serve 7 year(different from his 15 year sentence, which was already considered minimal from the normal 30 year incarceration time). Zakkariya, understandable, still held a grudge after his time out, but was soften every once in a while by topics or subjects related to his mother(such as the painting of her DNA Deborah gave to

him).
While all of this happened in the Lacks household, all around the world different issues regarding the HeLa cells and situations similar to it were happening. Such as the Moore suit in which if tissues are removed from your body they are no longer considered yours. A ruling that I now find scary to think of, knowing how much of our own body we casually sneeze into a tissue, or clip off. To then finding out the many researchers exposed to the HeLa cells had come to develop cancer such as Mr.Gey himself. A ironic point I couldn't help but feel was not coincidental but due to scientist having even less moral standards or thoughts to their working conditions(no matter how hard they to to just clean or scrub them). Ultimately I was fascinated by how these environments and exposure to unsanitary areas caused HeLa to instead of having exact copies of itself instead have daughter cells, all different from the original HeLa and the one before them.
Henrietta's family never received any money for her cells. A multi-billion dollar industry never dared, never even thought to give a cent to the struggling family, whose knowledge of the cells was non-existent until way later in their lives… A family who without their mother, wife, daughter and sister, scientists wouldn't have even made a dent in the medical discoveries they have. Is it still too late? After most of Henrietta's children have already perished, who can actua