Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

5 stars for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

This remarkable debut comes recommended by a booklover buddy of mine. The title alone is enough to intrigue me such that I have it up on top priority to be read right after Towers of Silence which I am halfway through then.

As dictated by the book title, yes, this is a story about Henrietta Lacks, her immortal cells and her descendents.

Born in 1920, Henrietta Lacks died from a vicious case of cervical cancer in 1951. Since then, her (cancer) cells have been living outside her body far longer than they ever lived inside of her. The term immortal human cells refer a continously dividing line of cells all descended from one original sample, cells that would constantly replenish themselves and never die.

Considering the evolution of medical science and with it, the ethical debates relating to human-subject research and inevitably, the legal issues regarding the ownership and commercial use of biological materials and products derived from humans, it is amazing how the author manages to condense years of her research materials and hundreds of hours of interviews into a single book.


Publisher: Crown; Crown International edition
Publication date: 2010

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Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. It’s a story 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’re made of.

*Blurb from author's website*

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