The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
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Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they
… More »Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons--as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vacci≠ uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta's small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia--a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo--to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. Henrietta's family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family--past and present--is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family--especially Henrietta's daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother's cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn't her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
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A black woman's self-perpetuating cancer cells live past her own shortened life, providing doctors and scientists with an unparalleled opportunity to do nearly unlimited research. Her family, however, was unaware her cells were ever collected. In this book author Rebecca Skloot takes them on a journey to learn the extent to which their mother's cells changed the face of cancer research forever. Fascinating, and possibly the best work of nonfiction I've ever read.
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Commentary by the author shows just how passionate she was to bring this story out to the world; it's no wonder it made so many "best books" lists in 2010.
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Add a CommentA fascinating story, well written and thought provoking. A must read.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in history, science, and biography. I would also recommend it for high school students, as well.
Fascinating & disturbing Must read
A very good read. I enjoyed this book. I would recommend this book for all to read.
I thought this would be more about Henrietta Lacks but found the book to be really two, or maybe three, woven together. There is only a little about Henrietta herself, so I got no real picture of her. There is quite a bit about medical research and the (unauthorized) use of human tissue in that research. Also, there is a lot about the children and extended family of Henrietta Lacks, their understanding of what happened to Henrietta's cancer cells, and what they thought the unacknowledged use of those cells did to them. In particular, Henrietta's daughter Darlene is showcased. For me, the portions on bioethics were the thought-provokers. Who does own waste human tissue? What legal rights does the patient have? Would medical advances suffer if rights are attributed? What consequences are there for financial gain?
This is an important story that'll add to the narrative of black history in America. That being said, it's also a difficult story to tell and though I admire the author Rebecca Skloot for her due diligence of having to negotiate her way through the subjects family, she goes off course the last 1/4 of the book, focusing on her relationship with the Lacks's daughter. Also, she kind of gives away the whole story right at the beginning. I like to experience the complete arc and not be told what's going to happen prior to. Still, it's an achievement nonetheless.
This book is so full of interesting ideas, tragedy, and moral murk. I feel so badly for the Lacks family and the way that they were taken advantage of time and again. And it kind of delivers home the incredible hubris of some in the scientific establishment, but also the power of discovery and the ways that technology has led to fantastic leaps in understanding.
I read this book as part of Kirtland Library book club. The book was an interesting read and brought to light numerous questions regarding patients’ rights, scientific research, class struggle and family ties. The author did a good job of mixing the scientific with the human story that ran in parallel.
Some parts of the book are excellent and some are average.
This book does a great job of balancing scientific history and biographical info on Henrietta Lacks. It involves the author's quest to get answers on who Lacks really was. It's raw and heartbreaking at times but a great read.