Search

The following paper is a result of a dialogue initiated between the course Anthropology of the Uterus and the literary work "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" written by the journalist Rebecca Skloot. In the midst of the corporeal and metaphorical discussions about uteruses and the wider topic of health, we explore several discussions about race, body, morality and science. As a means of presenting such immersion, I relied on the book which tells the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family's journey, searching for truths about the cells removed from Henrietta's uterus. The cells extracted, without her consent, were kept alive and became protagonists in the revolution of medical technologies of the XXth century. Hence, HeLa cells were born, propelling a multibillion-dollar biomedical industry. But the history of the Lacks family, intensely shaped by the tragedy of the loosing their mother, was silenced and caught at the service of an inhuman, racist and market driven medical ethics. I seek to present analysis an that articulates the ethical path of the cells, recounting the context in which they were extracted and the trajectory of the Lacks family, in search of clarifications and recognition for their contributions to medical science. The narrative aims to open up new horizons that converse with the pulsating universe of the uterus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]