Her Significance
Despite her little involvement in the discovery of her immortal cells, Henrietta Lacks is the key element of this change in medicinal history. Seeing as she is the very person who contributed her cells to this project, she is the source of all of the discoveries made, and lives saved. It is unfortunate that Henrietta didn’t live long enough to see the impact that she has made on the world, and continues to make every day as her cells still grow and are used in labs all around the world. It is also unfortunate that despite the wonders that her cells have done Henrietta did not receive any proper recognition by Dr. Gey after he started distributing her cell line around the world. He made no effort to reveal the person behind these amazing cells, nor did he try and get the rest of the Lacks’ family any kind of recognition for the mother’s contribution. But the world works in strange ways sometimes, and now that many people know who Henrietta is, if she is remembered as someone heroic, brave, and strong, then at least some justice for her invisibility in the early years of HeLa cells is compensated.