The story of Henrietta Lacks is definitely one needed to be heard by the public and should be told for generations to come. One of the most conflicting themes that seems to be apparent throughout the book is the lack of notification given to Henrietta regarding the use of her cells. It would seem only right to learn from the mistakes made by Lack’s medical team and share her story with everyone. The initial issue with Lack’s story was that it was kept under wraps for so long. The last thing that should happen with it now is to keep it from the community. The public deserves to know the full history of today’s medicine, the triumphs and horrors. How can it be made sure that something like this doesn’t happen again if the majority doesn’t know it happened to begin with? Although shameful, mistakes are made to grow from.
After a decade of digging, Rebecca Skloot had to turn her research into a book for all readers. I’m sure it was not easy turning the hidden medical files into an understandable and relatable book for the public. Telling a hidden, complicated story in a way that allows any reader to connect to it and learn from it was most likely a very daunting mission. Just the language itself used when uncovering the story was probably not as comprehensible to those without a strong medical background. Putting it into words for a wider range of audience is a challenge in itself, but to tell it so it hits a wide range of people equally, I’m sure was the main task at hand. Hopefully Skloot was successful in achieving this and I won’t have troubles with understanding the medical details of the story. I anticipate I may lose the message the story portrays with an overload of detail of Skloot getting at the truth. Regardless, I am eager to read about the challenges Skloot went through in exposing Lack’s story.
