What effect did sensational journalism and fiction about HeLa and cell cloning have on Deborah? Do you think this was the response that the writers intended?
The sensational journalism scares Deborah because she worries about the things that are said about her mother ,Henrietta Lacks. Deborah didn't believe about the story of Hopkins taking blacks in a basement for experimentation until she learned about her mother's cells. (Skloot 723) She believes that because a sheep was able to be cloned, that her mother is too and many are walking around London; Deborah's bases was on an article from The Independent were it says "Henrietta Lacks's cells thrived... there would probably be... a village" Deborah genuinely believes the cloning as she raised her eyebrows at the author to say "I told you so"(Skloot 725-726). Because of movies like Jurassic Park and The Clone made Deborah think that genes from cells from dinosaurs could make them be brought back to life and embryos can be used to make a colony of clones, that her mother is being done the same. The fact that her mother's cells could wrap around the world multiple times , she believed those sci-fi movies. Deborah had two other articles that made her believe more in the sci-fi; one article had the title of "Walking Carrots" and the other "Man Animal Cells" (Skloot 726-727). When the author asked about the manila folder and if it was Henrietta Lacks's medical records Deborah screamed, the author became afraid, Deborah was snapping and questioning hard on the author, left, and said she "[didn't] know who to trust" (Skloot 732-733). Writers didn't intend a sort of paranoid reaction; they were probably joking. One writer joked about Henrietta who put ten dollars in a bank, her clones would be rich (Skloot 726).
When Deborah sees headlines that are related to her mother, she starts to get on edge. Before Deborah agreed to speak to the author she had two conditions; the author had to correct the Helen Lane name to Henrietta Lacks and Henrietta had five children not four. The most important thing was that the author had to figure out what happened to Deborah's mother and sister so Deborah could understand what happened. (Skloot 713). Before the agreement when the author called Deborah, Deborah wanted her mother to be credited and for her family receive payment since other people like companies have taken advantage of the HeLa cells. Again, Deborah just wants to know what happened to her mother, since not even John Hopkin could give an explanation to what happened to Henrietta.(Skloot 712).
The sensational journalism scares Deborah because she worries about the things that are said about her mother ,Henrietta Lacks. Deborah didn't believe about the story of Hopkins taking blacks in a basement for experimentation until she learned about her mother's cells. (Skloot 723) She believes that because a sheep was able to be cloned, that her mother is too and many are walking around London; Deborah's bases was on an article from The Independent were it says "Henrietta Lacks's cells thrived... there would probably be... a village" Deborah genuinely believes the cloning as she raised her eyebrows at the author to say "I told you so"(Skloot 725-726). Because of movies like Jurassic Park and The Clone made Deborah think that genes from cells from dinosaurs could make them be brought back to life and embryos can be used to make a colony of clones, that her mother is being done the same. The fact that her mother's cells could wrap around the world multiple times , she believed those sci-fi movies. Deborah had two other articles that made her believe more in the sci-fi; one article had the title of "Walking Carrots" and the other "Man Animal Cells" (Skloot 726-727). When the author asked about the manila folder and if it was Henrietta Lacks's medical records Deborah screamed, the author became afraid, Deborah was snapping and questioning hard on the author, left, and said she "[didn't] know who to trust" (Skloot 732-733). Writers didn't intend a sort of paranoid reaction; they were probably joking. One writer joked about Henrietta who put ten dollars in a bank, her clones would be rich (Skloot 726).
ReplyDeleteHi Helen, why did Deborah have such paranoid reactions to every piece of science related news about her mother's cells?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWhen Deborah sees headlines that are related to her mother, she starts to get on edge. Before Deborah agreed to speak to the author she had two conditions; the author had to correct the Helen Lane name to Henrietta Lacks and Henrietta had five children not four. The most important thing was that the author had to figure out what happened to Deborah's mother and sister so Deborah could understand what happened. (Skloot 713). Before the agreement when the author called Deborah, Deborah wanted her mother to be credited and for her family receive payment since other people like companies have taken advantage of the HeLa cells. Again, Deborah just wants to know what happened to her mother, since not even John Hopkin could give an explanation to what happened to Henrietta.(Skloot 712).