There's a great moment in The Princess Bride when Inigo Montoya criticizes Vizzini on his repeated use of one word: "You keep using that word," he says, "I do not think it means what you think it means." We can say the same thing for the use of "immortality" when describing Henrietta Lacks and her constantly dividing cells. Scientists use the word immortality to mean everlasting life in a test tube. There's no continuation of consciousness or personality here. But, in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, when the Lacks family hears that Henrietta has achieved immortality, they, like most of us, have something completely different in mind. We think about living forever.
This sparks confusion and anxiety, not to mention visions of Henrietta-clones living on through eternity in an English village. It also conjures visions of a heroic afterlife, in which Henrietta is resurrected through her cells to save humanity from illness. The confusion isn't all on the Lacks side: even the scientific community slips easily from "HeLa" to "Henrietta" when speaking about the cells, as though they capture the essence of the person the Lacks family lost so long ago. Maybe the researchers, like George Gey, understood that cellular immortality is the closest humanity will ever get to the real thing.
Questions About Immortality
- What does it mean to be immortal? Is it different for the various players in Henrietta's story?
- Does the desire for an immortal cell line really have anything to do with humanity's quest for immortality?
- In what ways is Henrietta's "immortality" helpful for her family? In what ways harmful?
- How does the persistence and strength of HeLa cells help researchers? How does it make their lives more difficult?
Chew on This
Henrietta herself really is alive as long as her cells are alive.
The quest for immortality in this story is not an equal opportunity pursuit: marginalized groups may be part of the process, but don't enjoy the benefits of medical advances.