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.
This New York Times bestseller takes readers on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers filled with HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia, to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith …
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.
This New York Times bestseller takes readers on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers filled with HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia, to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. 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. ([source][1])
I sometimes dislike popular books on science, but I found this entertaining. There are a lot of interesting characters in the story, both in the Lacks family and at Hopkins. Also, I had heard that many cell lines had been contaminated with HeLa cells, probably in the 80s; I had no idea that this was first revealed in the 60s, but had been ignored.
A smallish group, entirely female, with many first-timers. A wonderment at what had been accomplished through the serendipity of Henrietta's cells, and a palpable sense that she and her family had been wronged.
What an amazing book! Rebecca Skloot's father is the wonderful Floyd Skloot, and in this case talent appears to be hereditary.[return]Henrietta Lacks was the woman whose sample of cancer cells became the first successfully cultured human cells. They revolutionized medical research. Their first major contribution was making it possible to develop a polio vaccine. This book tells the story of the cell line and how it's been used, and also the story of the Lacks family and the social and medical environment. If you think African Americans get poor medical treatment today, you should see what was being done in the 40s and 50s. I also had no idea how very recent the concept of informed consent became a part in experimentation on human beings.
A brilliantly told story about science, medical ethics, and the lives of a family whose mother's cancer cells live on.
This was an incredibly fascinating and sad tale of a woman, her cells, and her family. Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins for a check-up, complaining of having a "knot on her womb." A few months later she was dead from cervical cancer. Unbeknownst to Henrietta (and the rest of her family) the doctor sliced off a little bit of the tumor with the intent of using the cells for further research. These cells went on to be known as HeLa and there isn't (or doesn't seem to be anyway) a single part of medicine that these cells haven't influenced. This is also a sad story of what it was like to be black in the 50s and the type of medical treatment one could receive. Skloot does her best to keep herself out of the narrative and treats her subjects as directly and honestly as possibly. Fascinating stuff and …
This was an incredibly fascinating and sad tale of a woman, her cells, and her family. Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins for a check-up, complaining of having a "knot on her womb." A few months later she was dead from cervical cancer. Unbeknownst to Henrietta (and the rest of her family) the doctor sliced off a little bit of the tumor with the intent of using the cells for further research. These cells went on to be known as HeLa and there isn't (or doesn't seem to be anyway) a single part of medicine that these cells haven't influenced. This is also a sad story of what it was like to be black in the 50s and the type of medical treatment one could receive. Skloot does her best to keep herself out of the narrative and treats her subjects as directly and honestly as possibly. Fascinating stuff and easy to read for someone not accustomed to medical or science-related terminology.
I listened to the audiobook. This book is the story of Henrietta Lack's cancer cells which continue to live on in research labs long after her death and the effect on her family of learning this.
The book was to be about the cells, but the story becomes the story of how the story was written and the history of a poor urban black family in America and the society they live in through their eyes.
A must read!
