HeLa cells are being used to test a wide variety of scientific questions, including the effect of space on human cells. Scientists using cells were finding weird reactions. For example, George Hyatt created cancer on a subject because HeLa cancer cells had contaminated his cell cultures. It was thought that the contamination was due to disorganization and “cell sex”, but it was later by Stanley Gartler that HeLa cells could float on dust particles. Gartler discovered that all cell cultures had genetic markers of HeLa cells. All the past cell-related discoveries were due to HeLa cells without the researchers even knowing. Henrietta’s children did not grow up very well. Her daughter Deborah had a baby at sixteen, and eventually married the baby’s abusive, violent father. Joe, Henrietta’s son, went to jail for fifteen years for stabbing someone to death. All of this misfortune explains why the Lacks family is so distant to Rebecca Skloot. When Skloot visits the Lacks family, she realizes that they don’t really understand what HeLa cells are or have done. They then discuss much f the mistrust between …show more content…
It was also found that Henrietta’s tumor was much more aggressive then they originally diagnosed. After Gey’s death, the media started paying much more attention to Henrietta Lacks since her name was released and her cells were taking over.

Discussion: In these chapter, Skloot perfectly switches in between the family’s story and the HeLa cell, scientific narrative. I find myself much more interested in the family’s story because of the emotional attachment. I found the passage about the night doctors extremely interesting. Hearing the mistrust straight from the Lacks family proved to me the mistrust. I was amazing at the contamination effects. The fact that HeLa cells were floating through the air was outrageous. I understand why the media was going wild over this