My name is Zakariyya Lacks, but I used to be called Joe. My mother is, or was, Henrietta Lacks, but everybody in science calls her HeLa. Mama's cells were stolen from her and used to do many amazing things, like cure cancer, because they just keep on living. Mama's cells never die. And scientists and the doctors down there at John's Hopkins have made tons of money off my mama's cells. They claim they haven't made any money, but I sure as hell don't believe it. Now all of us Lackes are very happy that HeLa has been able to help so many people, but why should her own kin be forced to live without any healthcare? Any kind of doctors? Living less than paycheck to paycheck and worse off than when she died? Everybody seem to be benefiting from Henrietta except us. Maybe people should allow science to use their "bits and pieces", but isn't the key word their allow? My mother never "allowed" them to take a part of her body. She was a poor black woman with cancer and no consent. Those cells belong to my mother and my family, our family. Why should we suffer when HeLa produces so much wealth? "Everybody benefits" he says. Wrong. Everybody but US. Some people are benefiting more than others financially. And that's not fair. Deborah's husband said, “Everybody’s received some compensation but them, and that was they MOTHER,” (432). Yes, use our human scraps for research, but ask first and make sure the people you're benefiting from aren't being left with none.
My family had been without answers for too long. While everybody was out there benefiting and making such scientific progress, the Lackes were kept in the dark. I didn't know hardly nothing until Miss Rebecca Skloot came and wrote her book. My sister said, "“The thing I care about is, you gotta find out what happened to my mother and my sister, cause I need to know," (Skloot 448). Isn't that wrong? That it took us 50 some odd years to learn about what happened to our mother, wife, sister, friend? All we wanted was to know the truth, but instead we were used by hundreds of reporters to sell stories of our information for money we'd never see. I'm not greedy, I'm not, but I just don't think it's unfair.