"Thoughts on The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks"

 From reading the synopsis of TOLOHL I have had many thoughts about the whole situation.  One of my thoughts was on the topic of Henrietta Lack’s being important to the public. This story would be appropriate and important to the public for many situations. The public needs to understand and know what can happen to their testing or cells without them even knowing. They need to hear information that can help prevent them from getting taken advantage of. Patients can be taken advantage of if a doctor used their cells or testing without their consent. Patients need to make sure they are careful with their information, if they do not want any of their cells, or test records to be used in the hospital for various reasons.

  Some challenges that Rebecca Skloot faced while writing a book for such a broad audience were that she had to be careful on her selection of words in her writing. If she would have used medical terms, the everyday citizen may not understand what is going on, and they soon will lose their interest in the story. She had to write with the mindset of writing that everyone would understand, yet it still being professional and politically correct.

  As a reader there are some challenges I anticipate when I am reading TOLOHL. I am very interested and focused as I read but there are questions and concerns that come across my mind that I have a hard time with. One of the main challenges I have is understanding why this is happening and how it was able to happen to someone. It was taking something personal and private from someone without his or her consent. To me that is violating a law. As I read more into the story, I hope to find an explanation of why this took place.