In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks written by Rebecca Skloot, there is a debate over whether Americans should be hopeful for the future of healthcare or whether to be pessimistic about what’s to come. There are times where people can see both sides of the argument and it is understandable why people have different points of view based on the argument. In the story, we see Henrietta’s cells used as research and the information is kept away from Henrietta’s family. Even though by keeping the cells alive and hiding it from the family is illegal, there have been positive benefits by helping to find a cure for disease, medications and saving the lives of many people. We also see the Lacks struggling with affording healthcare, today we see…
Unfortunately, there were many problems where people had a hard time paying for healthcare or even getting the chance to receive healthcare. The Lacks were one of the families who had a hard where they could not afford insurance for healthcare. Even though she had seen doctors, the doctors did not give her the proper diagnosis; they would have given other patients more information about a certain diagnosis to people who were richer than the Lacks. During the 1950s, it was the time of discrimination and it was hard to find hospitals or doctor who treated African Americans (Skloot 15).
While the doctors at Hopkins were examining Henrietta, there was a chance they might have missed something that could have helped her with her condition and as a result, her tumor she noticed grew bigger. “Either her doctors had missed it during her last exam which had seemed impossible or it had grown at a terrifying rate” (Skloot 17). At the time, it could be a possibility that they ignored some of the signs that Henrietta mentioned about her condition. Due to the fact, Henrietta is an African American during the 1950s; it is hard to see if the doctors paid close attention to her symptoms due to her…
