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How do religion and science clash in The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks?
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In "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," religion and science clash primarily through ethical concerns about biomedical research, such as the unauthorized use of Henrietta's cells. The Lacks family's Christian beliefs highlight the violation of Henrietta's bodily integrity, contrasting scientific practices with religious values. The family's religious experiences, including church services and spiritual guidance, further illustrate the tension between faith and scientific ethics, especially regarding informed consent and the sanctity of the body.
The huge issue of ethics in biomedical research, including the unauthorized removal and use of human tissue, is one of the primary themes of the book. Those issues are brought home in many of the interactions the author had with members of Henrietta Lacks’ family.
While the theme of ethical conflicts runs through the book, it is not always directly connected to religion per se. Chapter 17, especially deals with ethics, for the unauthorized use of diseased tissue, including the injection of cancer cells into unknowing patients. The author traces such procedures back to Nazi experiments on Jewish prisoners. It also follows these types of procedures in the U.S. after the war in light of the Nuremberg Code and the Hippocratic Oath. These developments and related lawsuits helped make informed consent a standard legal requirement.
Within the Lacks extended family, one of Henrietta’s sons-in-law, James Pullum, is a preacher, and...
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the family members are Christians. Their concern after finding out that Henrietta‘s cells had been taken includes the violation of her body’s integrity. James also includes Rebecca Skloot in a church service, something new to her, having been raised Jewish-agnostic. Gary, her daughter Deborah’s nephew, sometimes channels Jesus and at one point appeals to God to lift the burden of the cells from the troubled Deborah. He gives Rebecca a Bible, and explains to her about the different beauties of heavenly and earthly bodies (Chapter 36).