Illness and Ecology: Resilience Amid Capitalist Exploitation in Medical and Environmental Narratives

Abstract This paper examines how Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place by Terry Tempest Williams and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot illuminate the intertwined vulnerabilities of bodies and environments under systems of capitalist and institutional exploitation. Both texts interrogate the socio-political and ecological forces that render illness not merely a biological condition, but a manifestation of broader structural injustices. Williams offers an ecofeminist critique of militarized and patriarchal governance, illustrating how nuclear testing in the American West caused profound ecological destruction and generational health crises, particularly among women. Skloot, drawing from critical race theory and biopolitical analysis, explores the unethical extraction and commodification of Henrietta Lacks’ cells, revealing how racial and gendered exploitation underpins biomedical progress. Through personal yet politically charged narratives, both authors challenge the reader to understand illness within a nexus of environmental degradation, medical ethics, and global capitalism. This study argues that Williams and Skloot collectively call for an expansive model of justice—one that integrates ecological sustainability, bodily autonomy, and systemic equity through interdisciplinary engagement with environmental humanities, medical ethics, and critical theory. Keywords: Ecofeminism, Biopolitics, Environmental Racism, Medical Ethics, Capitalist Exploitation and Resilience.