Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Henrietta Lacks: Washington's Medical Apartheid vs. Skloot

As I was reading the chapter in Medical Apartheid where Washington mentions Lacks, I was surprised she only really talked about her in five sentences - I thought to myself, that's it? I feel as though there could have been an entire section in that chapter devoted to Henrietta alone. This makes me appreciate Skloot's book on Lacks even more - what happened to Henrietta is a story that needs to be told, and luckily Skloot was compelled enough to write a book so other people could learn about it after she had been so fascinated herself. I wish Washington had spent more time discussing Lacks in her book so we could really see the differences between how the two authors think about this controversial topic.

- Josh Steffen

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