How we cite our quotes: (Page)
Quote #4
When she asked McKusick to explain more about the cells, he gave her a book he'd edited called Medical Genetics, which would become one of the most important textbooks in the field. He said it would tell her everything she needed to know, then autographed the inside front cover. (188)
For a brilliant guy, McKusick certainly comes off as clueless in this scenario. He assumes that Deborah has the education and background knowledge to understand a genetics textbook used in med school. He also feels like he's doing Deborah a favor (notice how he magnanimously signs the book). This is yet another instance of the scientific community totally missing what the Lacks family is asking of them, and then failing to deliver.
Quote #5
The more Deborah struggled to understand her mother's cells, the more HeLa research terrified her. When she saw a Newsweek article called PEOPLE-PLANTS that said scientists had crossed Henrietta Lacks's cells with tobacco cells, Deborah thought they'd created a human-plant monster that was half her mother, half tobacco. When she found out scientists had been using HeLa cells to study viruses like AIDS and Ebola, Deborah imagined her mother eternally suffering the symptoms of each disease […]. (196)
Skloot tells us that Deborah has difficulty handling both spoken and written language, so you can imagine how she felt whenever her mother's name appeared in the media in relation to some strange story about "people-plants." It's terrifying for her to think that somehow her mother is still suffering.
Quote #6
She held up an article from The Independent in London and pointed at a circled paragraph: "Henrietta Lacks's cell thrived. In weight, they now far surpassed the person of their origin and there would probably be more than sufficient to populate a village of Henriettas." (237)
This is perhaps the funniest—and most heartbreaking—moment between Skloot and Deborah. She explains to Skloot that she's afraid of running into a clone of Henrietta on the street. Skloot has to explain to her that this isn't even scientifically possible. We learn that some of Deborah's deepest anxieties about her mother happen because she has no way of understanding the researchers' metaphors or the sensational claims of the media.