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Quote #10
For Deborah and her family [...] that answer was so much more concrete than the explanation offered by science: that the immortality of Henrietta's cells had something to do with her telomeres and how HPV interacted with her DNA. The idea that God chose Henrietta as an angel who would be reborn as immortal cells made a lot more sense to them than the explanation Deborah had read earlier in Victor McKusick's genetics book [...]. (296)
Understanding Henrietta's immortality in a spiritual way (rather than a scientific way) helps the Lacks family come to terms with the existence of HeLa cells and their uses in research. Although Skloot would probably rather see them embrace a more scientific explanation, she gets how important this is to them.
Quote #11
"But I tell you one thing, I don't want to be immortal if it mean living forever, cause then everybody else just die and get old in front of you while you stay the same, and that's just sad." Then she smiled. "But maybe I'll come back as some HeLa cells like my mother, that way we can do good together out there in the world." (310)
Deborah reflects on the benefits and different forms of immortality, and maybe even the ethics of living forever. She concludes that it's only good if it helps the human race. On this, Deborah's waay ahead of some of the scientists involved in the HeLa story.