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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Chronic illnesses such as cancer can be a threat to life. In fact, for many years, cancer

was termed as an incurable. Being diagnosed with cancer meant death. This triggered most of the

patients to keep quiet about such news. For instance, they would not tell the family because of

the trauma that comes along with treatment of terminal illnesses like cancer. The patients would

rather keep their families deceived while undergoing treatment for terminal illnesses that involve

the whole family. Patients do not want to tell their family that they are sick due to not wanting to

cause their family problems; however, not telling the family their illness can cause the family to

feel emotional distress later on.

Henrietta Lacks, a mother of five children, arrived at The John Hopkins Hospital to

commence her treatment of cervical cancer. During the operation, the surgeons took a sample of

her cervix tissue without her knowledge and handed it over to Dr.Gey who was the head of tissue

research in that hospital. Gey used those cells in the hope that he would find immortal human

cells that would be used in the medical industry. However, he was unsuccessful in so doing. The

cells he took from Henrietta without her knowledge were different, they never died.

Approximately one year after her cervical cancer diagnosis, Henrietta succumbed to the disease

and was buried. However, her family was not even aware that a part of her still lived on, in
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laboratories all over the world, until Rebeca Skloot conducted a research project to find the true

story behind HeLa, illness, death, and family.

Henrietta Lacks had never told her children about her cervical cancer illness and later on

it caused a lot of distress to them. For two decades, Henriettas children who were still alive by

then lived unaware of their mothers cells that still lived on and were the basis or rather

foundation for the multibillion-dollar industry that had developed in. During her research, Skloot

had to try hard to build a trustworthy working relationship with Debra (Henriettas daughter).

When working on the project with Skloot, Deborah struggled to understand what happened to

her mother and her mothers cells. However, Skloot had to endure all the struggle to bright to the

light on what transpires behind the many biological types of research that are going on

worldwide.

After the death of Henrietta, and just after the family received news that their mothers

cells still existed, scientists began researching her children. At first, the children thought that they

were only being tested to see if they too have cancer that killed Henrietta, but in a real sense, the

research was to learn more about her cells. In fact, Lawrence (Skloot 13)thought that the research

was to determine that whether he too could live forever like their mother. However, when they

found out later the truth through Skloot, they were saddened. One by the fact that in their poor

states they could not afford to see doctors for treatment and checkups yet their mothers cells

were being used to run a multi-billion dollar company around the world.

Apart from not being able to attend medical attention, Henriettas son Lawrence had to

walk out of school to take care of her ailing siblings. Later he completely quit school due to

financial constraints. Additionally. Deborah and Joe were raised by a woman who was said to be

Henriettas hater when she was alive. She took that chance to mistreat her children. Had her
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children been aware of their mothers illnesses and the huge amount of money perhaps they

would have been in a position to live a better life or even hire a nanny to take care of them. Later

learning of their mothers illness caused them a lot of emotional distress when they think of

whatever they have been through.

When the family members later learn of the terminal illness that killed their loved ones,

they become emotionally distressed because they think that had they been aware of the condition

perhaps they could have helped in one way or another (Proot et al 114). They keep blaming

themselves for the death of their loved ones yet in real sense they had no control over it. Family

members feel resentful towards themselves for not being there for their loved ones in hard times.

Terminally ill patients could choose to withhold information as they do not want to be a

burden to the family. This is because terminal illnesses come along with huge costs of treatment.

However, keeping such information could later cause distress to the family because they feel that

they could have gone out of their way perhaps to organize a fundraising or help financially for

the patient and help them pull through the treatment (Watson 6-7 ). Additionally, they start

lamenting and remembering all the difficult and rough moments that the patients went through

and relate them to the illness.

Conclusion

Patients do not want to tell their family that they are sick due to not wanting to cause their family

problems; however, not telling the family their illness can cause the family to feel

emotional distress later on. For instance, Henrietta Lacks children went through a lot of

emotional distress when they later learned of what killed their mother and the multi-billion

industry that thrives due to their mothers cells that have lived on many years after she
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died. The children wonder why they had to grow in such poverty with no money to see

doctors, dropping out of schools and even being brought up by a cruel stepmother yet their

mothers cells had a fortune rich enough to offer them a good life. Additionally, family

members are left emotionally distressed because they tend to feel had they been aware of

the terminal illness they could have helped the patient with finances or even give the

required home care.

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Work cited

Proot, Ireen M., et al. "Vulnerability of family caregivers in terminal palliative care at home;

balancing between burden and capacity." Scandinavian journal of caring sciences 17.2 (2003):

113-121.

Skloot, Rebecca. "The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, the sequel." New York Times 23 (2013).

Watson, Max S. Oxford handbook of palliative care. Oxford University Press, USA, 2005.