The “Immortal Life” of Henrietta Lacks asks us to consider if a woman who has been dead for 60 years remains in some sense “alive” because descendants of her cells continue to exist and propagate. This claim captures the complex ethical and legal issues at the heart of the book: What does it mean to be “alive”? Are human beings just a complex collection of cells, or are we something more? And how does our answer to this question help us delineate our constitutionally protected rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”?
The “Immortal Life” of Henrietta Lacks asks us to consider if a woman who has been dead for 60 years remains in some sense “alive” because descendants of her cells continue to exist and propagate. This claim captures the complex ethical and legal issues at the heart of the book: What does it mean to be “alive”? Are human beings just a complex collection of cells, or are we something more? And how does our answer to this question help us delineate our constitutionally protected rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”?
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