I think it is incredibly important that Henrietta Lack’s story is shared with the public. It’s important that the public learns about Henrietta and her family, but also becomes informed about the problems with research and consent in the medical field. Just from reading the short synapse I couldn’t help but feel bad for Henrietta’s family and the treatment of African American patients at that time. This book will without a doubt stir up emotion and debate across our campus and country on several different issues. I think that this book will help bring light to the problems with the medical research community and the multibillion dollar companies that invest in them. The issues in this book are prevalent to students in almost all fields and majors, and the debates will help encourage further thought and research.
Because of the broad audience that Rebecca Skloot is writing for in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks the book covers a variety of topics and issues. This makes the book appeal to a much larger audience, but also makes it hard for the author to make sure everyone can understand the main points and concepts. Since it’s not just written for medical students, or even college students, Skloot must find a way of relaying the important topics in a simple yet concise way. She also faces the challenge of making it interesting for the higher level readers such as medical students.
As a reader I predict facing challenges of not being biased, and trying to understand both sides of the issues. When reading a good authors work it is often easy to be persuaded by their points and not research and formulate your own opinions. Throughout this book I will try to fight the temptation of joining a particular side on an issue until I’ve heard both sides' arguments.
