Social constructionism was the theory described by Joel Best that explains how things in life become controversies or problems. The ways in which society thinks about situations and uses categories to analyze events in the world structure experiences and understandings of these events. Human beings look at events beyond an objectivist approach and, instead, subjectively, influenced by the context in which they live. Social constructionist theory can be used to examine the relationship between science and the people it serves, illustrated in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman who died of cervical cancer in the 1950s. She sought treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where she visited many times and eventually died. During the visits, his cells were taken without his consent and handed over to scientist George Gey. Gey quickly realized that Henrietta's cells were not like the other cells he had grown in his laboratory; they had the ability to grow exponentially in a cell culture, known as HeLa, and were soon seen as immortal cells. Not only that, cells soon became one of the most prolific resources in medical research, having a major impact in the development of polio vaccines, cloning, genetic mapping, and much more. HeLa has become a medical controversy, not only because it has helped the world of science achieve so much, but also because of the ethical dilemmas it has developed. Social construction can be used to help explain how HeLa cells became famous in general. According to the theory, one must first make statements about something. Then, the media will end up spreading such claims, which will eventually garner a public reaction. This would lead to policies… middle of paper… In Henrietta's life, informed consent was very informal and lax. But due to cases like HeLa and Mo, informed consent was recognized as an issue that needed strict guidelines and therefore became mandatory. Considering the social construct theory, HeLa cells were considered controversial, which eventually led the public to also consider other cases controversial in their nature and in need of guidelines to regulate scientific research. Evaluating current policies, clearly some still believe that more guidelines are needed, while others believe that things like tissue and other biological materials should be considered the property of the person from whom they came. What the social construct can say about the story of Henrietta, HeLa and Mo shows how influential society is in building values, practices and traditions.