How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #1
The Geys were determined to grow the first immortal human cells: a continuously dividing line of cells all descended from one original sample, cells that would constantly replenish themselves and never die. (30)
Immortality means different things to the players in Henrietta's story. For the Geys, it meant a constant supply of cells for experimentation. But when that term is thrown around in front of Henrietta's family, they imagine that their wife and mother is somehow still living and feeling (and being experimented on) in research labs around the world.
Quote #2
But Carrel wasn't interested in immortality for the masses. He was a eugenicist: organ transplantation and life extension were ways to preserve what he saw as the superior white race, which he believed was being polluted by less intelligent and inferior stock, namely the poor, uneducated, and nonwhite. (59)
Though Carrel's surgical innovations did, in fact, help all of humankind, he wouldn't be happy to know this. Carrel's racist philosophy is scary on so many levels. How much do you know about your doctor's political beliefs? Many medical advances were often made on the backs of people who Carrel would have considered "inferior." It's probably true that if there was some medical advance that extended life dramatically, the rich would live and the poor would die.
Quote #3
Gey gave his lab staff careful instructions for growing GeGe, a line of cancer cells taken from his pancreas. He hoped that his cells, like Henrietta's, would become immortal. (171)
The same action which caused such pain and anxiety to the Lacks family is the one that would have given George Gey comfort. Because he understands it. For Gey, the opportunity to become scientifically immortal eases the psychological suffering he feels with his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. In a great twist of fate, Gey never got the chance to establish the GeGe cell line and so was denied his dream of living forever. Had the Lacks family had the same scientific understanding that Gey had, their experience would've been entirely different.