Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot (Goodreads Author)

4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 · rating details · 140,504 ratings · 17,668 reviews

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....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 vaccine; 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.(less)

Hardcover, 370 pages

Published February 2nd 2010 by Crown Publishing Group (first published 2010)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin

What's the book you can't wait to read this summer?

31st out of 2,129 books — 5,034 voters

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Best for Book Clubs

71st out of 2,667 books — 7,368 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Mar 17, 2011 Kemper rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, blinded-me-with-science, medical, signed-by-author

The doorbell rang the other day and when I answered it, there was a very slick guy in a nice suit standing there and a limousine parked at the curb. He started shaking my hand and wormed his way into the house.

“Mr. Kemper, I’m John Doe with Dee-Bag Industries Incorporated. I need you to sign some paperwork and take a ride with me. Don’t worry, I’ll have you home in a day or two,” he said. Then he pulled a document out of his briefcase, set it on the coffee table and pushed a pen in my hand.

“Wai...more

411 likes · like · see review

Mar 26, 2012 Jason rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-kindle, 2012, reviewed

You know what I think is funny? This book is called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. That makes it sound pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? Henrietta Lacks’s name is in the title. Henrietta Lacks’s picture is on the front cover. And yet this book has seemingly very little to do with Henrietta Lacks. In fact, I’d argue that this book is rather about Rebecca Skloot. Yup, it’s the story of Rebecca Skloot doing a story about Henrietta Lacks, only forgetting to actually give us the story. I’ve...more

230 likes · like · see review

May 31, 2012 Jacob rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, history, science-and-nature, biography-memoirs-etc

May 2012

Henrietta Lacks vs. Jesus: Final Exam
(With apologies to believers)

Directions
Please read the following excerpts, and answer the questions below:

From the Last Supper:

While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many fo

...more

44 likes · like · see review

Aug 08, 2011 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: public-library, do-not-own, non-fiction, award-winner

Fascinating and Thought-Provoking.

Strengths:
*Fantastically interesting subject!
One woman's cancerous cells are multiplied and distributed around the globe enabling a new era of cellular research and fueling incredible advances in scientific methodology, technology, and medical treatments. This strain of cells, named HeLa (after Henrietta Lacks their originator), has been amazingly prolific and has become integrated into advancements of science around the world (space travel, genome research, ph...more

60 likes · like · see review

Jan 15, 2011 Petra X rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: popculture-anthropology

This is an all-gold five star read.

Its actually two stories, the story of the HeLa cells and the story of the Lacks family told by a journalist who writes the first story objectively and the second, in which she is involved, subjectively. The contrast between the poor Lacks family who cannot afford their medical bills and the research establishment who have made millions, maybe billions from these cells is ironic and tragic. It has been established by other law cases that if the family had gone...more This is an all-gold five star read.

Its actually two stories, the story of the HeLa cells and the story of the Lacks family told by a journalist who writes the first story objectively and the second, in which she is involved, subjectively. The contrast between the poor Lacks family who cannot afford their medical bills and the research establishment who have made millions, maybe billions from these cells is ironic and tragic. It has been established by other law cases that if the family had gone for restitution they would not have got it, but that's a moot point as they couldn't afford a lawyer in any case.

I have seen some bad reviews about this book. People who think that the story of the Lacks - poor rural African-Americans who never made it 'up' from slavery and whose lifestyle of decent working class folk that also involves incest, adultery, disease and crime, they just dismiss with 'heard it all before' and 'my family despite all obstacles succeeded so what is wrong with the Lacks?' I wonder if these people who not only totally can't see the wonderful writing that brings these people to life and who so lack in compassion themselves are the sort of people who oppose health care for the masses? As an extremely wealthy American tourist once put it to me, he had earned good health care by his hard work and success in life, it was one of the perks, why waste good money on, say, a a triple-bypass on someone who hasn't even succeeded enough to afford health insurance? That they were a drain on society, non-contributors and not the way America needed to go to move forward.

I don't think you can rate people by what they have achieved materially. Success depends a great deal on opportunity and many don't have that. Henrietta Lacks didn't have it and her children didn't have it, not even her grandchildren made much of a way for themselves, but the next generation, the great grandchildren - ah now they are going in for Masters degrees and maybe their children will be major contributors. The author intends to recompense the family by setting up a scholarship for at least one of them. All of us came originally from poverty and to put down those that are still mired in the quicksand of never having enough spare cash to finance an education is cruel, uncompassionate and hardly looking to the future.

HeLa cells have given us our future. They are the most researched and tested human cells in existence. All of us have benefited from the medical advances made using them and the book is recognition of what a great contribution Henrietta Lacks and her family with all their donations of tissue and blood, mostly stolen from them under false pretences, have made. Indeed one of the researchers who looks like having told a lot of lies (and then lied about that) in order to get the family to donate blood to further her research is still trying to get them to donate more. She's a hard-nosed scientist, with an excellent job and income and to her the Lacks are no more than providers of raw material.

Sometimes you can't make hard and fast rulings. No I don't think we should have to give informed consent for experiments to be done on tissue or blood donated during a procedure or childbirth - that would slow medical research unbearably. I don't think cells should be identifiable with the donor either, it should be quite anonymous (as it now is). However, there is only ever one 'first' in any sphere and that one does deserve recognition and now with the book, some 50 years after her life ended, Henrietta Lacks has it. Good on yer, Rebecca Skloot, you've done a good thing here. (less)

96 likes · like · see review

Dec 18, 2010 Mag rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, medical-ethics, science

It reads like good crime fiction. It chronicles the life of the woman whose cancerous tissue became the first tissue in history which could be successfully grown as culture and used in various, and countless, experiments from vaccine research to cloning. Her tissue was so successful in fact that it became virtually immortal, surviving in various environments and proliferating at prodigious rates. Yet, very little was known about the woman herself, her life, her family, her history, and this is w...more

17 likes · like · see review

Jun 08, 2012 Gary rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a book that everyone should read....especially if you're ever had surgery, been to a doctor of any kind, etc., etc., etc. This situation could have happened, or might happen to anyone....

What is sad about this story is it happened to a very beautiful,and naive African American woman, who was too poor to get good medical care,and died a horrible death,and yet she lives on..... find out how by reading this engaging, horrific story, set in the 1950's and the present....

Since this is a true...more

21 likes · like · see review

Apr 15, 2011 Siria rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-history, biography, history, nonfiction

Henrietta Lacks, a young African-American mother of five children, died in Baltimore in 1951 from a highly aggressive form of cervical cancer—but more than fifty years after her death, part of her lives on in the form of HeLa, a cell line cultivated from a tissue sample of hers which played a key role in several major scientific and medical breakthroughs. Skloot's book tells Lacks' story, partly to pay tribute to a woman who was forgotten by all but her family for many years despite her importan...more Henrietta Lacks, a young African-American mother of five children, died in Baltimore in 1951 from a highly aggressive form of cervical cancer—but more than fifty years after her death, part of her lives on in the form of HeLa, a cell line cultivated from a tissue sample of hers which played a key role in several major scientific and medical breakthroughs. Skloot's book tells Lacks' story, partly to pay tribute to a woman who was forgotten by all but her family for many years despite her importance to medicine; partly in order to examine the complex attendant issues of medical ethics, race and class.

Skloot's writing is fluid and accessible, and I learned some things which were shocking though not surprising to me (see the organ retention scandal which broke in Ireland a few years ago). That said, I would have liked for a stronger focus on the ethics and the science aspect of the novel and less on the lives of Lacks' children and other relatives. Skloot's focus on them and on some of the more unpalatable aspects of their lives felt quite voyeuristic to me at points, recounted not because Skloot wanted to examine the effects of the vicious cycle of poverty on people's lives but because it would inject more drama into the book. The author talks at length about the less-than-pure motivations of those who had previously profited from Lacks' cells, and their refusal to compensate Lacks' family in any way, about how she was financing her research with credit cards and student loans—and yet her end-goal was always to acquire a book deal, and her account of her relentless attempts to get in touch with members of the Lacks family made me highly uncomfortable. Much of the latter half of the book dealt with the relationship between Skloot and Deborah, Henrietta Lacks' youngest daughter—again, uncomfortable to read about at several points, and not especially relevant to the book's main thrust.

Overall, an interesting read, but I feel that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks could easily have been edited down to half its length—and focused more on Henrietta because of it.(less)

10 likes · like · see review

May 31, 2011 Stacey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science, nonfiction, ebook, borrowed-from-library, all-time-favorites

I've started and erased my little book commentary so many times because this story is so overwhelming and so important on multiple levels, I'm not sure anything I could say about it would do justice to the complexity and dichotomy of the story surrounding Henrietta Lacks. It might not be far from the truth to state that she was the most important person who ever lived. A physical part of her body has saved hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of lives, and improved the lives of countless oth...more I've started and erased my little book commentary so many times because this story is so overwhelming and so important on multiple levels, I'm not sure anything I could say about it would do justice to the complexity and dichotomy of the story surrounding Henrietta Lacks. It might not be far from the truth to state that she was the most important person who ever lived. A physical part of her body has saved hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of lives, and improved the lives of countless others. And her story is not over yet. Her cells are still being used in medical research all over the world. But these benefits came at the cost of a violation of her rights, in a time when it was commonplace for doctors and researchers to just do and take, without consent, especially among poor populations and people of color.

Some of the things done with Henrietta's cells saved lives, some were heinous experiments performed on people who had no idea what was being done to them, in a grotesquely distorted and amplified reflection of what was done to Henrietta. Nuremberg was dismissed in the United States as something that only applied to the fallen Nazi's. Any act was justifiable in the name of science. And yet, some of the things done right her in our own nation were reminiscent of the research being conducted under the direction of the notorious Dr. Mengele.

Reading certain parts of this book, I found myself holding my breath in horror at some of the ideas conjured by medical practioners in the name of “research.” Of course, we know.* Anyone who is even moderately informed on this nation's medical history knows about the Tuskegee trials, MK Ultra, flu and hepatitis research on the disabled and incarcerated, radiation exposure experiments on hospital patients, and cancer, cancer, cancer. The poor, disabled and people of color in this country, the “land of the free,” have been subjected to so many cancer experiments, it defies belief. Many of these trials, including some devised of Henrietta's cells, have involved injecting cancer, non-consensually, into human subjects.

So while it is true that there can be utterly no doubt that our lives, and the lives of much of the world, are better, because of the knowledge made possible by parts of Henrietta Lacks's body, still acknowledgment of this reality comes at the cost of knowing that procedures were performed on her without her knowledge or understanding, and without her consent, with impunity; these actions were made even easier because she was poor, black and female, and this is to say nothing of the numerous and unethical violations of her (and her children's) privacy. It's an old story.

It's a story that her biographer, Rebecca Skloot, handles with grace and compassion. Henrietta is not some medical spectacle, she was a real woman. If she has been deified by her friends and family since her death, it is maybe the homage that she deserves, not for her cells, but for her vibrance, kindness, and the tragedy of a mother who died much too young.

There are a great many scientific and historical facts presented in this book, facts that I couldn't possibly vet for veracity, but the science seems sound, if simplistic, and the history is presented in a conversational way, that is easy to read, and uninterrupted by footnotes and references. Family recollections are presented in storyteller fashion, which makes for easy and compelling reading. Fact-checking is made easy by a list of references, presented in chapter-by-chapter appendices.

Rarely do I read something that makes me want to collar strangers in the street and tell them, “You MUST read this book,” but this is one of those times. Henrietta's story is bigger than medical research, and cures for polio, and the human genome, and Nuremberg. Henrietta's story is about basic human rights, and autonomy, and love. It's about knowledge and power, how it's human nature to find a way to justify even the worst things we can devise in the name of the greater good, and how we turn our science into a god.

This story is bigger than Rebecca Skloot's book. But I am grateful that she wrote it, and thankful to have read it. Would the story have changed had Henrietta been given the opportunity to give her informed consent? That's the thread of mystery which runs through the entire story, the answer to which we can never know.

*documentation in this list is inconsistent, but most of these experiments can be independently verified.(less)

17 likes · like · see review

Mar 18, 2011 Kaethe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Kaethe by: Color Online

Shelves: format-ebooks, history, medicine, nonfiction, p-o-c, politics, science, social-issues

Well, I didn't get to it in time, and I had to return it for someone else. Next time I'll do better.

***

I started with the sample. Oh, Amazon, you know me so well, I had to buy that sucker as soon as I reached the end of the sample.

***

Skloot has written an amazing book. She gets at the intersection of race, class, and medical history through the lens of one woman's experience of the medical system, and the experience of her surviving family.

5 likes · like · see review

Feb 26, 2013 Ayelet Waldman rated it 5 of 5 stars

Holy shit this book is awesome.

9 likes · like · see review

Sep 04, 2010 Liz Nutting rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

When I was a graduate student in the field of Ethics, one of my favorite pedagogical strategies, as both a teacher and a student, was the case study. A good case study can make an abstract ethical issue more concrete. A really good case study can turn a deeply contentious issue into an opportunity for thoughtfulness and compassion; right and wrong (to the extent that those concepts even belong in the study of ethics) are nuanced by descriptions of circumstances or values or human need that can m...more When I was a graduate student in the field of Ethics, one of my favorite pedagogical strategies, as both a teacher and a student, was the case study. A good case study can make an abstract ethical issue more concrete. A really good case study can turn a deeply contentious issue into an opportunity for thoughtfulness and compassion; right and wrong (to the extent that those concepts even belong in the study of ethics) are nuanced by descriptions of circumstances or values or human need that can make it easier to see and hear and believe the ones on the other side(s) of an issue.

Often the case studies are hypothetical, or descriptions of actual cases pared to "just the facts, ma'am," without all the possible extenuating circumstances that can shape difficult decisions. For some students, this causes great angst. How could they be asked to make a judgment, especially one that might involve life or death, without knowing all the details? And of course, at the end of the lesson, everyone wants to know what really happened, how things turned out "in real life." On those rare occasions when we actually do know something of the outcome, it is clear that knowing what "really" happened almost never makes the decision easier, clearer, or less agonizing.

And that is what makes The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks so deeply compelling and challenging. It is the rare story of the outcome of a seemingly inconsequential decision by a doctor and a researcher in 1951, one that few at that time would have ever seen as an ethical decision, let alone an unethical one. A researcher studying cell cultures needs samples; a doctor treating a woman with aggressive cervical cancer scrapes a few extra cells of that cancer into a Petri dish for the researcher. The missing cells had no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of the woman's disease, so no harm done. A few weeks later the woman is dead, but her cancer cells are living in the lab.

The bare bones ethical issue at stake--whether it is ethically warranted to take a patient's tissues without consent and subsequently use them for scientific and medical research--is even now not a particularly contentious one...yet. Legally, the case law is settled: tissue removed in the course of medical treatment or testing no longer belongs to the patient. It is, in essence, refuse, and one woman's trash is another man's treasure. Ethically, almost all the professional guidelines encourage researchers to obtain consent, but they have no teeth (and most were non-existent in 1951 anyway). In reality, the vast majority of the tissue taken from patients is of limited use. But there are those rare times when a single person's cells have the potential to break open the worlds of science and medicine, to the benefit of millions--and the enrichment of a very few.

Such was the case with the cells of cervical cancer taken from Henrietta Lacks at Johns Hopkins University hospital. HeLa cells grew in the lab of George Gey. And grew. And grew, unlike any cell before it. Next, they were carried to a different laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, where Jonas Salk used them to successfully test his polio vaccine, and thus the cancer that had killed Henrietta Lacks directly led to the healing of millions worldwide. Soon HeLa cells would be in almost every major research laboratory in the world. They traveled to Asia to help find a cure for hemorrhagic fever and into space to study the effects of zero gravity on human cells. Even today, almost 60 years after Henrietta's death, HeLa cells are some of the most widely used by the scientific community.

With such immeasurable benefits as these, who could possibly doubt the wisdom of Henrietta's doctor to take a tiny bit of tissue? But the "real" story is much more complicated. Henrietta Lacks was uneducated, poor and black. Her cancer was treated in the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins. Her death left five children without their mother, to be raised by an abusive cousin. Should any of that matter in weighing the morality of taking tissue from a patient without her consent, especially in light of the benefits?

God knows our country's history of medical experimentation on the poor and minority populations is not pretty. Ironically, one of the laboratories researching with HeLa cells in the 1950s was the one at the Tuskegee Institute--at the very same time that the infamous syphilis studies were taking place. In light of that history, Henrietta's race and socioeconomic status can't help but be relevant factors in her particular case. But her children's status? What bearing does that have?

According to author Rebecca Skloot, in ethical discussions of the use of human tissue, "[t]here are, essentially, two issues to deal with: consent and money." Both become issues for Henrietta's children. The family didn't learn until 1973 that their mother's cells had been taken, or that they'd played such a vital role in the development of scientific knowledge. They spent the next 30 years trying to learn more about their mother's cells. As they learned of the money made by the pharmaceutical companies and other companies as a direct result of HeLa cells, they inevitably asked questions about what share, if any, they were entitled to. As Henrietta's eldest son put it, "If our mother so important to science, why can't we get health insurance?"

But even more than financial compensation, the family wants recognition--and respect--for their mother. They want the woman behind her contributions acknowledged for who she is--a black woman, a mother, a person with name longer than four letters. And they want to know the mother they never knew, to find out the facts of her death. In the lab at Johns Hopkins, looking through a microscope at her mother's cells for the first time, daughter Deborah sums it up: "John Hopkin [sic] is a school for learning, and that's important. But this is my mother. Nobody seem to get that."

Would a fully informed Henrietta Lacks have made the decision to give her tissue to George Gey if asked? Would her decision either way have had any affect whatsoever on her children's future lives? We'll never know, of course. But reading the story behind the case study makes these questions far more potent than any ethics textbook can. And as science now unravels the strains of our DNA--thanks in no small part to HeLa--these are no longer inconsequential questions for any of us. Perhaps we, too, like the doctors and scientists who have long studied HeLa, can learn from the case study of Henrietta Lacks.
(less)

78 likes · like · see review

Jul 02, 2010 Christina rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, book-club-books

This was an interesting read. While I applaud Skloot's attempt to present a fair look at the history of the HeLa cell line used in research labs all over the world, the book is clearly skewed toward sympathy for the family. Not that they don't deserve sympathy, but really, the problems of the family is NOT the fault of anyone involved with the cell line. Don't get me wrong, Henrietta and her family have had a hard life, and they do deserve some sympathy. But not for this particular issue.

The sad...more This was an interesting read. While I applaud Skloot's attempt to present a fair look at the history of the HeLa cell line used in research labs all over the world, the book is clearly skewed toward sympathy for the family. Not that they don't deserve sympathy, but really, the problems of the family is NOT the fault of anyone involved with the cell line. Don't get me wrong, Henrietta and her family have had a hard life, and they do deserve some sympathy. But not for this particular issue.

The sad fact is that Henrietta died of an aggressive cancer, leaving her family to live their lives without her. That was not her fault or the fault of her family, but it was also not the fault of the hospital staff of Johns Hopkins. Yes, there was racial and socio-economic discrimination, but the fact remains that Henrietta was treated to best of the ability of the doctors at that time. Do we view the taking of cell samples from Henrietta without her permission as unethical today? Most people would say yes. But the law still remains unclear about that, and in 1954 that was most certainly not seen as unethical - it was common practice. So in the context of the time, the act was not unethical.

As for monetary compensation, Johns Hopkins did not profit from the growth of HeLa cells; in fact, the scientist that first worked with HeLa cells GAVE the cells away to many many many other labs FOR FREE. Those labs shared with other labs, etc. Are there companies that profit from the cells now? Yes. But they got the cells the same way everyone else did back then - for free. The company then did their own research to find a way to mass produce, store and ship living cells. At the point the first company started mass producing and selling the cells the identity of the donor was long hidden, and the fact the cells were widespread at that time made them common property, so people in possession of the cells could do pretty much anything they wanted with them.

And now for the part that is a little stickier - the family found out about Henrietta's cells, were (sort of) tricked into donating blood and cell samples and were kept in the dark about the cell line for decades. Was that right? NO, absolutely not. HOWEVER, I will point out that some of the subsequent anger, confusion and fear on the part of the family was due to their extreme lack of education rather than a malicious attempt to prey upon the Lacks family.

The science presented in the book is simplified somewhat for the lay person, which is nice, as is the look at the advances in medicine and research that HeLa cells have brought to the world. As a scientist, however, I think that Skloot's explanations were a little fuzzy and did not really dispel most people's image of how science works in the real world. Perhaps a little more objectivity and less family bonding would have made this a better book.

In conclusion: though Skloot claims she tries to give an unbiased view of the history of HeLa cells and the family from whence it came, I am concerned that lay people who read this will not understand some of the finer points and it will increase the already rampant fear of science that pervades American culture. The majority of Americans are woefully un-educated in the sciences, to the point that many people view it as no different than magic,but weirder and scarier. (less)

22 likes · like · see review

Sep 04, 2010 Jeanette rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, science, nonfiction, four-star-nonfiction

4.5 stars

There's something here for everyone. Some people comment on the human interest aspect of the story with regard to the Lacks family. Other people mention the cell science. For me, the most interesting thing was the history of informed consent, or the "Lacks" thereof. (Go ahead and laugh now at my clever wordplay. You know you want to.)
It's hard to believe the bizarre ways people's bodies were used for medical research, with or without their consent. Even when they did give consent, they...more

9 likes · like · see review

Apr 16, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: bio

I am not sure how is it in other countries but here in the Philippines, if you bring your car for repair in a service center and the serviceman says that he replaced a part, you how to do in you should find that replaced part inside your car. I think it is their proof that they actually replaced that part and also for you to decide how you want to dispose, resell, reuse or recycle it. Normally, this practice bothers me because I have a very small space for junks at home and I do not know what to...more I am not sure how is it in other countries but here in the Philippines, if you bring your car for repair in a service center and the serviceman says that he replaced a part, you how to do in you should find that replaced part inside your car. I think it is their proof that they actually replaced that part and also for you to decide how you want to dispose, resell, reuse or recycle it. Normally, this practice bothers me because I have a very small space for junks at home and I do not know what to do with a malfunctioning compressor, air vent, axle, mudguard, leaking pipes, tubes, coolant container, etc. What am I going to do with them? The only thing I know w.r.t. car is how to replace the battery or a flat tire. So, I always end up giving those away to the poor junk man so as to have something to load in his pushcart.

It may not be the best analogy to introduce a very compelling book like this. However, the logic is the same. The organ, tissue, cells or fluids that you left in the hospital during your last hospitalization or check-up is totally different from the car spare parts. But both are left after you get what you want and you think they are of no use to you anymore. You gave the authorization for the part to be removed and replaced (if possible) and you deserve to have the replaced unit because legally, you are still the owner of the original or replaced part. However, just like me and the car junks, I would imagine that you don't want to bring home with you some test tubes filled with your excess coagulated blood, liquified Chlorox-smelling semen, miniscule torn ligaments or decayed tooth. What are you going to do with them?

Henrietta Lacks, a poor black Tobacco farmer, died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, the doctors got her cancerous tissue and tried to use its cells in a cell culture. Surprise. Surprise. Henrietta's cells propagate like wild fire and they are still alive up to now. It was the first successful cell culture since in all the previous attempts, the cells only lived for few days before dying. The book explains that in Henrietta's chromosomes has enzyme called telomerase that continuously rebuils the telomere which is a string of DNA found at the end of each of Henrietta's chromosome. Skloot says in her introduction that there is more to this, as well as other issues, but apologizes for not excluding them in this book's scope. That's fine with me, because the scientific discussions in the book are just enough for me not to fall asleep and lose interest. We all took Biology in high school and the Cell and its parts, how they work, etc is always that's subject's first lesson so I think you can get by.

So what if Henrietta's cells are still alive today? Medical discoveries still happen and we don't know or don't care to know their history. Well, those cells have been used to developed vaccines for polio, gene mapping, cloning, etc. So? Well, Henrietta's cancer cells were used without her or her families consent. Henrietta died 2 weeks after being diagnosed with cervical cancer and she was so poor she had to be buried in an unmarked grave. So? Well, Henrietta was black and the doctors were white. In the 50's, America was still not so open with mixing the two colors. The whites probably would not want to have anything in their body taken from a black person. So? This book tackles a number of controversial questions on medical ethics, racism and social discrimination. However, this is not a serious boring book. Skloot's storytelling does not leave any tinge of textbook formality and this can be read just like any A-grade medical crime bestseller that has some sprinklings of family drama (Henrietta's children have to be given away to relatives after her death), incest (10-y/o Rebecca, Henrietta's daughter, escapes a horny uncle showing his erect penis and she does not know the meaning of a rigid penis) and the struggles of a black family despite having a world-renowned mother whose cells, called the HeLa cells, make a unprecedented contribution to the medical field and in prolonging our life expectancy.

So? Well, what if the same thing happens to you? What are the chances that your excess semen was not put in the wastebasket but stored in a sperm bank and given away to childless couples for in vitro fertilization of the wife's ovum? Then what if that child becomes the new Einstein? a new Picasso? a new Shakespeare? a new G.G.Marquez?

I'm just saying...
(less)

31 likes · like · see review

Jul 17, 2010 Jude rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: class-work, audiobook, politcs-of-color

it's as if the writer wanted the story the way i would want it, and self-observes the arc of her own education the way i would, so the emotional style resonated at a profound level: a combination of passion, humility & fearlessness that makes me trust the her completely, that makes me grateful she is the person who chose this story - or that it chose her.

& then there's the story - the science. the race & class issues, the muck of medical ethics before patients were real people and bl...more

20 likes · like · see review

Nov 22, 2012 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone in a white coat

Recommended to Rachel by: NYT

Shelves: bioethics, mingei-book-club, could-read-1000-times, biology-and-natural-history, nonfiction, cultural-studies, well-i-swan, six-stars, history-of-science

Full disclosure: I come to this book from a weirdly fortuitous place. Take my brief, but mind-searing, stint in gynecologic oncology research ca. 2002, which involved a weekly trek to the OR to pick up still-warm tumors, with the women who informedly consented to donate them often open on the table as I did so. Then throw in two years working in a tissue culture hood, two more in a narrative nonfiction book group, and another big chunk of time studying infectious diseases. Mix in interests in so...more

13 likes · like · see review

Jul 24, 2011 Cornerofmadness rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-non-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Upon reading this book I felt cheated, not by this book but by all the science books I’ve read before it. I earned my first three science degrees (including my medical degree) in the late 1980’s early 1990’s, and at that point women’s contributions to science were barely acknowledged, regardless of race. I’m convinced the only reason we learned of Madam Curie was she won the Nobel Prize and couldn’t be ignored. I never heard of Rosalind Franklin and her contribution to DNA studies until an injur...more
Upon reading this book I felt cheated, not by this book but by all the science books I’ve read before it. I earned my first three science degrees (including my medical degree) in the late 1980’s early 1990’s, and at that point women’s contributions to science were barely acknowledged, regardless of race. I’m convinced the only reason we learned of Madam Curie was she won the Nobel Prize and couldn’t be ignored. I never heard of Rosalind Franklin and her contribution to DNA studies until an injury-forced career change took me back in pursuit of another science degree. I’m working up two new anatomy classes both of which have chapters on genetics and there is still not one mention of Hela or Henrietta (though there will be in my own notes).

I’m not including the tooting of my own horn here just to brag but rather to point out my own background in science is extensive and to illustrate just how ignore Henrietta Lacks’s unknowing contribution to science still is so I am very glad to have this book (which will be going on the suggested reading list for my classes). To begin with I think Ms Skloot manages a difficult task, making non-fiction as easy to read and as compelling as fiction (Personally I often find non-fiction to be almost like work in reading it, too dry). Her passion for this story comes through so strongly and her care and concern for the Lackses is touching. She had more patience than most people would have and I commend her for it.

She deftly weaves Henrietta and the family’s past in with the modern day search to bring the truth to the surface. Henrietta had a hard short life and the sad reality was in 1950’s America people of African descent had every reason to fear hospitals. Any number of studies was undertaken then that today are horrifying to the point many of my students can’t even believe that it happened when I tell them about things like the Tuskegee experiments. I know from personal experience with patients that would have been Henrietta’s contemporaries that no one, regardless of race, questioned doctors back then. None of the family would have known that her cells had been harvested and that is true today (points to the afterward, most people don’t realize that biological tissues are often used for study rather than destroyed. My surgery last month was purposely done at a teaching hospital so that both the surgery and the tissues taken could be used for research but there were no consent forms for that purpose as they’re still debating the pros and cons of such a thing).

However, this, along with fears that their mother was purposely allowed to die, tainted several generations of the Lacks family. Ms Skloot had a lot of hard work to win their trust. The inarguable thing about the whole story is though, how revolutionizing Henrietta’s cancerous cervical cells really were. They were so successful in living in culture that they are still here today decades after Henrietta’s death. This immortality of her cells allowed for an incredible amount of research done, vaccinations, the effects of space travel and so much more.

I was stunned at how hounded for information Henrietta’s descendants were (given how little I have ever seen about HeLa cells in text books. Professional articles are a different story). At least from Ms Skloot’s telling of it, Deborah, Henrietta’s daughter, and her siblings did seem to find a measure of peace through Skloot’s investigation which is good especially in how wronged they felt (and rightfully so).

I’m not sure at all how I feel about some of the questions raised about today’s medical ethics (you can not go back and apply today’s HIPPA laws and patented cells lines to the days when the cells were first harvested). I’ve volunteered for medical research (but only very occasionally, women are rarely taken as research subjects unless it’s female related). Sometimes you’re paid, sometimes not. What would happen to science if there had to be a pay out to every volunteer? It’s a question not to be taken lightly. Would it bankrupt the whole system? Or, like in the case of the Lackses who have very little, would it be fair compensation. I don’t know the answer to that. I’m not sure anyone does. I know I’ve always been bothered by funeral homes making extraordinary sums for tissue harvesting for donations while the family sees none of it. Is this any different? I guess you’ll have to read the afterward of the book and wrestle with these questions yourself. I did find it very telling as to where humans put their priorities though when the book talks about animal rights in the lab getting protected in 1909 and we didn’t even start talking about humans in the same way until 50 years later and legislation wouldn’t follow for another couple decades.

Anyhow, to sum up this rambling mix of review and personal experience, go read this book. If you have any interest in science research, social injustice and medical ethics, this is an absolutely fascinating book that will amaze, frustrate and infuriate you as you go along for the ride.
(less)

5 likes · like · see review

Apr 26, 2012 Hayes rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: tbr-challenge-2012, read-in-2012, biog-memoir

3.5* Information: fascinating; execution: not as polished as it deserved to be

Skloot spent an enormous amount of time, energy and angst bringing this story together. She helped the Lacks family understand what happened and what is still happening to Henrietta's cells and helped them all, especially Deborah (Henrietta's daughter) to come to terms with everything. It was a mammoth, incredibly difficult task; however, too much space was given to Deborah's repeated anxiety attacks, without explainin...more

14 likes · like · see review

Feb 24, 2011 Rach rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who is interested in race issues, class issues, or scientific research into human illnesses

Recommended to Rach by: NPR

Shelves: 2011-reads, books-i-own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. If I could give this book 10 stars, I would.

It is an amazing story of Henrietta Lacks, whose cervical cancer cells became the first "immortal" cells in the study of human cell cultures. It covers the story of her life, death, and how her cells have changed science as we know it.

In 1951, it was common for tissue to be taken without a patient's knowledge, especially when the patient was black. This book touches on how that simple fact changed a family's life. Much of the book discusses how it ef...more If I could give this book 10 stars, I would.

It is an amazing story of Henrietta Lacks, whose cervical cancer cells became the first "immortal" cells in the study of human cell cultures. It covers the story of her life, death, and how her cells have changed science as we know it.

In 1951, it was common for tissue to be taken without a patient's knowledge, especially when the patient was black. This book touches on how that simple fact changed a family's life. Much of the book discusses how it effected Henrietta's children once they found out that their mother's tumor had been taken and experimented on without her consent during the biopsy of the tumor. Upon her death, consent was given for an autopsy and some samples to be taken, but it was because her husband wasn't fully informed and thought that the tests would detect whether his and Henrietta's children had cancer.

The book also discusses race issues and class issues that have touched the Lacks family's life. It discusses what care was common for black people in the early 50s and how many black people didn't get basic health care because they simply couldn't afford it and because it was well-known that black patients were often experimented on.

It's heartbreaking to read about her family's complete misunderstanding of what had been done to their mother. When Henrietta's children were told about the fact that Henrietta's cells were still alive and being studied, 25 years after her death, they first thought that their mother had been kept alive all that time and was being experimented on. This wasn't because they were intellectually unable to understand it (as shown by how Deborah, Henrietta's surviving daughter, taught herself a lot of the science surrounding the testing done on the cell line established from Henrietta's cell sample), but because they were so poor that they weren't given basic science education and because of the lingering taint on the medical establishment that remained due to the Tuskegee airmen experiment and similar experiments.

It's also heartbreaking to read about the fact that the Lacks' family had, at the time of the publishing of the book, no health insurance, even though their mother's cells have been sold and resold uncountable times.

The race issues are also discussed when it comes to the care of Elsie, who was institutionalized when Henrietta became ill, because of her mental retardation. Unfortunately, Elsie's life wasn't as well-documented as Henrietta's life, and many of her medical files were lost between the time of her death and when Skloot and Deborah begin their research into Elsie's life. But it's made clear that experiments were done on Elsie without the family's consent and that it was quite common at the time for experiments to be done on those in mental institutions.

Lastly, this book touches on how the issue of the ownership of tissues taken for samples and payment for any treatments or cures to the owner of the tissues is evolving. As of right now, once you sign away the rights to your tissue, you sign away the monetary rights, but the law is still trying to find the "right" answer to this issue.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Even if you're not interested in the scientific aspect of it, it's a book that should be read for the human side of the story, along with the medical ethics issues.

I'll end with saying that there are some triggery things in this book, especially if you have issues surrounding medical things being done to you without your consent. But I think that should go without saying. Everything is handled as sensitively as possible, though. I found that the matter-of-fact matter in which Skloot writes makes it all a bit harder to digest, especially if you're very unused to these things being discussed so openly. But I think that style suits this story -- the things that happened to this family should make you uncomfortable. (less)

13 likes · like · see review

Feb 13, 2011 Kathleen rated it 3 of 5 stars

My thoughts on this book are kind of all over the place. I feel for the Lacks family, I really do. It's hard to read about the poverty and lack of education and the cavalier approach towards informed consent in the early days of Johns Hopkins Research Hospital. The fact that the HeLa cell line is the foundation of so much valuable research is rightfully a source of pride for the family of Henrietta Lacks. I don't think they will ever see monetary compensation for their mother's cancer cell line,...more

55 likes · like · see review

Jun 07, 2010 rmn rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction-science, non-fiction-other

This is a phenomenal book. If it doesn't win every non-fiction award for 2010 than whoever votes for non-fiction awards should have their library cards taken away from them*.

The author, Rebecca Skloot, does a masterful job of seamlessly weaving in the scientific story of Henrietta Lacks' immortal cells and the effect they have had on medicine and medical ethics with a real human interest story about Henrietta and the struggles of her family. Skloot does this without coming across as maudlin, pre...more

25 likes · like · see review

Jul 09, 2011 Jamie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-and-medicine

3.5 stars. A good book about the famous HeLa cell line that has contributed so much to science, interlaced with the story of the original donor, Henrietta Lacks, and her family. Skloot objectively discusses the legal and ethical issues involved when research is carried out on tissue samples taken from human subjects.

Do you own every piece of your body? Should you be informed whenever a bit of it, however small, is taken away and experimented upon? Are you entitled to compensation if a corporatio...more

10 likes · like · see review

Aug 20, 2012 Rohini Nair rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Rohini by: Riku Sayuj

Being intrigued with the biology of life, I began this long journey to unravel its mysteries. The first encounter of a 'life-outside-the-human-body' was HeLa! I learnt about the origin and nature of these cells from a scientific perspective. But this book gave a human touch to the work we researchers do in order to know more about ourselves and help mankind in the long run. For all those who have worked with this elegant cell line, this book is definitely worth the read. For those outside the re...more

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 05, 2010 Will Byrnes rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography-autobiography-memoir, science, public-health, american-history, brain-candy

On October 4, 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a thirty-one-year old black woman, died after a gruesome battle with a rapidly metastasizing cancer. During her treatment, the doctors at Johns Hopkins took some cells from her failing body and used them for research. This was not an unusual thing to have done in 1951. But the cells that came from Ms. Lacks’ body were unusual. They had qualities that made them uniquely valuable as research tools. Labeled “HeLa”, Henrietta’s cells were reproduced by the billio...more On October 4, 1951, Henrietta Lacks, a thirty-one-year old black woman, died after a gruesome battle with a rapidly metastasizing cancer. During her treatment, the doctors at Johns Hopkins took some cells from her failing body and used them for research. This was not an unusual thing to have done in 1951. But the cells that came from Ms. Lacks’ body were unusual. They had qualities that made them uniquely valuable as research tools. Labeled “HeLa”, Henrietta’s cells were reproduced by the billions over the following sixty years and have been instrumental in experiments across a wide range of biological science. Today, HeLa cells are sold by the vial at impressive prices. Yet, Ms. Lacks’ family has seen not a penny of compensation from the work that has been made possible by their relative’s unique cells.

Rebecca Skloot, a science writer with articles published in many major outlets, spent years looking into the genesis of these cells. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells four stories. First is the tale of HeLa cells, and the value they have been to science; second is the life of, arguably, the most important cell “donor” in history, and of her family; third is a look at the ethics of cell “donation” and the commercial and legal significance of rights involved; and fourth is the Visible Woman look at Skloot’s pursuit of the tales. Each story is significant.

The contribution of HeLa cells has been huge and it is important to know how these cells came to be so widely used, and what are the characteristics that make them so valuable. Skloot goes into a reasonable level of detail for those of us who do not make our living in a lab coat. She adds information on how cell cultures can become contaminated, and how that impacts completed research. She also offers a description of telomeres, strings of DNA at the end of chromosomes critical to longevity, and key to the immortality of HeLa cells. Fascinating stuff.

Skloot constructs a biography of Henrietta, and patches together a portrait of the life of her family, from her ancestors to her children, siblings and other relations. It is with a source of pride, among other emotions, that her family regards Henrietta’s impact on the world. Skloot delves into these feelings, and the experiences the Lacks family members have had over the decades with people trying to write about Henrietta, and people trying to exploit their interest in Henrietta for dark purposes.

The author had to overcome considerable family resistance before she was able to get them to meet with and ultimately open up to her. She takes us through her process, showing who she talked with, when, and the result of those conversations, what institutions she contacted re locating and gaining access to information about Henrietta and some other family members. Most interesting, and at times frustrating, is her story of how she gained the trust of some, if not all, of the Lacks family. This is like presenting a how-to of her research process, a blow-by-blow description of the way research is done in the real world, and it is very enlightening.

The Immortal Tale of Henrietta Lacks has received considerable acclaim. It is all well-deserved. The book is an eye-opening window into a piece of our history that is mostly unknown. It presents science in a very manageable way and gives us plenty to think about the next time we have a blood test or any other medical procedure. This book may not be as immortal as Henrietta’s cells, but it will stay with you for a very long time.
(less)

23 likes · like · see review

Jun 13, 2011 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, e-books, book-club

I finished this book over vacation. Not exactly a beach novel, but an enjoyable read non the less, about Henrietta Lacks, her cells, her family, and medical ethics. I'm really glad Rebecca Skloot wrote this book and would gladly pick up another book from her in the future. Her reporting is wonderful and accurate, even if it is a bit exhaustive in certain parts.

3 likes · like · see review

Nov 13, 2011 Ciara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

this was recommended to me by several friends who know that i like to read about science. i'd avoided it when it was first released because of all the hype, but i'm glad i gave it a chance because it really was an excellent book. i doubt that anyone really needs me to summarize the contents, but nonetheless: sitting in a college-level science class at the age of 16, author rebecca skloot is introduced to the role of hela cells in various scientific breakthroughs over the last several decades. he...more this was recommended to me by several friends who know that i like to read about science. i'd avoided it when it was first released because of all the hype, but i'm glad i gave it a chance because it really was an excellent book. i doubt that anyone really needs me to summarize the contents, but nonetheless: sitting in a college-level science class at the age of 16, author rebecca skloot is introduced to the role of hela cells in various scientific breakthroughs over the last several decades. her instructor mentions that all hela cells were cultured from one slice of tissue from one woman. her name was henrietta lacks & she died in 1951 at the age of 31 from cervical cancer at johns hopkins teaching hospital, leaving five children motherless.

skloot became obsessed with learning more about henrietta lacks & how her cells achieved scientific immortality. this book is the result of over a decade of research, including thousands of hours of interviews with henrietta's extended & immediate family members. the narrative she presents is not linear & chronological, but it is well-paced & addresses the role of class, race, & gender in medical experimentation, health care access, & informed consent.

as far as my personal feelings about the book go, i somewhat preferred the more scientific interludes about how the cells were cultured, how they have been used in experiments, how they have taken over other cell lines, court cases relating to commercial rights & tissue "donations," etc, to the chapters about skloot's relationship with henrietta's family. i enjoyed the biographical information when it was presented more as straight autobiography, but henrietta's children were really put through the wringer upon learning that their mother's cells were still alive twenty years after she had died & had been used to facilitate everything from the polio vaccine to DNA sequencing. therefore, when skloot got in touch, wanting to interview them about henrietta & her cells, they were understandably reluctant to speak with her. she had to slowly build trust with them, which was no easy feat when you consider how badly they had been taken advantage of by others who were looking for a way to cash in on henrietta's legacy, as well as their own limited understanding of exactly what that legacy was.

this is why i am withholding one star. there were a few passages in the book that seemed like skloot was trying to present herself as some kind of long-suffering white savior, helping these ignorant black folks get some kind of justice or peace. nothing overt--there were just a few times when i was left with a bad taste in my mouth over how skloot described some interaction with a family member. & even if i am wrong (as i very well could be) & skloot is in fact the picture of anti-racist harmony, the fact that this book is mainly going to be reaching an audience of people worlds more privileged than the family members it describes...it seems to almost set up another kind of consumption of henrietta & her Otherness, apart from her miraculously hardy cancer cells.

but! i still definitely recommend this book. (less)

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 21, 2011 Paras Allana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, really-liked-it

I see this book in three ways, a complete history of HeLa cells, a human point of view by voicing Henrietta and her family's life and hardships and the sci-fi. I'll explain why I thought of sci-fi but first I'll deal with HeLa cells first. I think the whole history was interesting and informative. I learned a lot of things that I mixed up with. I first learned about this story some two years back while discussing with a friend about bioethics. I did not understood the vastness of uses of HeLa ce...more

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 06, 2012 Sarah Weathersby rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Author Rebecca Skloot first heard about HeLa cells in an introduction to biology class she took at a community college as a makeup for a failed high school class. The lecture about HeLa cells and Henrietta Lacks ended with, "She was a black woman." That statement launched the author's interest in biology and piqued her curiosity into the life of Henrietta Lacks. By the time she earned a degree in biology, Skloot had decided to write a book about the woman whose cells survived long after her deat...more Author Rebecca Skloot first heard about HeLa cells in an introduction to biology class she took at a community college as a makeup for a failed high school class. The lecture about HeLa cells and Henrietta Lacks ended with, "She was a black woman." That statement launched the author's interest in biology and piqued her curiosity into the life of Henrietta Lacks. By the time she earned a degree in biology, Skloot had decided to write a book about the woman whose cells survived long after her death.

I almost didn't read this book. It was at first a need to read rather than a desire to read. Then my daughter (an Ob/Gyn) told me it was a must read, and my own Gyno said I must read. I asked my doc if a layperson would be able to understand all the biological/medical language and she assured me the book is historical and biographical as well. I was convinced to start reading. It didn't take long before I was reading into the night about the life of Henrietta Lacks.

The author wisely alternates between chapters about Henrietta's genealogy, life, treatment, death; and the clinical studies, distribution of the cells grown from the biopsy taken from Henrietta's cervical cancer. The author chronicles her knowledge of unethical experimentation on human patients ranging from Nazi experiments on concentration camp inmates to the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. The outrage recorded during the Nuremberg trials never resulted in changes in medical practice or ethics, so that no requirement for informed consent was written into law.

Ms. Skloot traces Henrietta's family back to a slave plantation in Virginia, through the Jim Crow era when there was little access to medical treatment for poor blacks. Henrietta was part of the Great Migration, moving to Baltimore where Johns Hopkins Hospital provided medical treatment for blacks often in exchange for uninformed participation in clinical studies.

It became painful to read of Henrietta's lack of access to a peaceful and pain-free transition though a horrendously painful death, especially when juxtaposed against the multi-million dollar industry which grew out of the cancerous cells taken from her.

Ms Skloot spent years tracing Henrietta's children, who were babies at the time of her death in 1951. As Skloot learns about the life of Henrietta, her children have a glimpse into the mother they never knew as well.

This is a true story you must read. I give it five stars.(less)

4 likes · like · see review

Apr 30, 2012 Meredith O'Donnell rated it 2 of 5 stars

Interesting concept. Reading it with my book club...

Upate: Finished. I am always up for a rousing ethical debate. The deplorable breach of privacy, a basic human right, displayed in the book was appalling. Anyone who has ever been dehumanized can relate to the way Henrietta was objectified for the sake of science. It was beyond unconscionable.

I am glad the story was told. I hope that Skloot's efforts will remind the industry of science and medicine that they need to be held accountable for the...more Interesting concept. Reading it with my book club...

Upate: Finished. I am always up for a rousing ethical debate. The deplorable breach of privacy, a basic human right, displayed in the book was appalling. Anyone who has ever been dehumanized can relate to the way Henrietta was objectified for the sake of science. It was beyond unconscionable.

I am glad the story was told. I hope that Skloot's efforts will remind the industry of science and medicine that they need to be held accountable for their actions, and the finished product is not the only thing that matters, but the methods taken on their road to discovery count as well. Henrietta's cells have provided mankind with a lot to be grateful for, and for that we must thank the scientists and doctors who worked feverishly and masterfully, experimenting and coming up with new ideas. However, the people behind the cells have rights too. Bioethics have come a long way since the 1950's, but there are still flaws.

I learned in several journalism courses I took in college that the job of the journalist is to hold accountable those who serve the public--be it in politics, consumerism, or medicine. That is what Skloot has done by tackling the story of Henrietta Lacks--the person behind the immortal HeLa cell line. For that, I commend her.

While I agreed with the endeavor, I had a few issues with her strategy. As others have mentioned, she placed herself in the story excessively. She claimed it was necessary, but I doubt if it was necessary to the extent that she did it. She seemed to want to constantly remind the reader of her plight. This is not the place of a journalist--just tell the story, don't tell your own story of getting the story. Also, she had an incredibly obvious bias, and a suspiciously not-so-obvious agenda. I did question Skloot's intentions. She spoke as an advocate for the Lacks family, but I do wonder whether or not she was a welcomed one, or a useful one.

She classifies the book as nonfiction upfront. And that it is. Or was intended to be... the story is real. But the details were so convoluted, shrouded and murky that it became difficult to truly believe with any authority one thing or the other. For instance, Skloot admits that the medical field was not proficient in recording things during this time (no computer.) Consequently, a lot of important details concerning Henrietta's illness, diagnosis, the retrieval of her cells, her death, her autopsy, her burial, among other factors, were not clearly documented. Also, Skloot's main sources of information were the Lacks family--a family frought with incest, disease, mental illness, partial deafness, drug abuse, a lack of intelligence and a lack of education--none of which was their fault, but all of which made them unreliable sources of information. For instance-- did Henrietta ever meet Gey? His assistant Mary swears yes. But Dave Lacks says absolutely not. The tie breaker is dead..and was on her death bed/twisted with pain/heavily medicated during the time of the alleged meeting so it is not out of the realm of possibilities that she either forgot about the encounter or didn't think to bring it up. It's also just as possible that Mary was confused (no documentation,) or was lying. I have no reason to believe one over the other. Also, Joe's murder. Skloot decided to present the family's convenient recollection of events authoritatively--that it was self defense. However, a witness testified under oath that the fatal attack was unprovoked. Again, I have no incentive to take one side over the other, but Skloot's selective storytelling contributed to my distrust of her as a narrator, a writer and a reporter.

When I read a nonfiction piece, I prefer for the facts to be indisputable. Aside from credibility issues, I also questioned Skloot's true motives. She hid behind an ultra-liberal facade: a sympathetic crusader who was empowering this poor, uneducated family with the voice they never had. But notice how she proudly boasts of a deep friendship with Deborah Lacks in the beginning of the book... but I wonder if Deborah, God rest her soul, would confirm this claim. We'll never know. Skloot seemed to pester the family, while at the same time condemning those who did the same...as if her reasons were more pure and justifiable. She also clearly lamented their lack of medical coverage and financial compensation, and a portion of the proceeds for the book will go to a scholarship fund for the family, but why didn't she just write them a big check? They didn't benefit directly.

If you read closely, Skloot reveals that she had to agree to certain conditions before the Lacks family would agree to talk to her. She had to tell the family's story exactly the way it was told to her, whether facts were verified or not. She was so desperate to satisfy, what started out as her own morbid curiosity, and grew into an obsessive mission, that she agreed to this stipulation. That almost concealed little tidbit, combined with the unreliability and untrustworthiness of the medical profession during that time, left this reader skeptical of nearly every word.

However, the subject matter and her insistance to reinstate the human side to a research subject, as well as the fact that Skloot manages to make very technical terminology and notions perfectly clear to a former B student in Biology, earn the writer one star each. I recommend reading along side Oliver Sacks' The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat-- another nonfiction piece about the humanization of patients.

Meredith O'Donnell(less)

7 likes · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Gey taken the cells before or after Henrietta's Death?	14	254	Apr 28, 2013 07:28am
Movie about this	9	107	Mar 15, 2013 06:58am
Pasadena area - Sonny Lacks speaking	3	90	Feb 14, 2013 11:45am
Movie about this	1	52	Jan 30, 2013 07:22pm

combine
Other Editions (43)

More editions...

Videos About This Book

Official Trailer: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Add a comment

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Readers Talk

1 comment

Genres

Book Club

1,688 users

Non Fiction

1,672 users

Science

1,434 users

Biography

909 users

History

827 users

Health > Medicine

204 users

Medical

192 users

Adult

132 users

Biography Memoir

112 users

Autobiography > Memoir

105 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Rebecca Skloot

Rebecca Skloot is an award winning science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; and many other publications. She specializes in narrative science writing and has explored a wide range of topics, including goldfish surgery, tissue ownership rights, race and medicine, food politics, and packs of wild dogs in Manhattan. She has worked as a co...more

More about Rebecca Skloot...

Books by Rebecca Skloot

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About The Immortal Life...

15 trivia questions
1 quiz

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Immortal Life of H...

“Like the Bible said,' Gary whispered, 'man brought nothing into this world and he'll carry nothing out. Sometimes we care about stuff too much. We worry when there's nothing to worry about.” — 40 people liked it

“But I tell you one thing, I don't want to be immortal if it mean living forever, cause then everybody else just die and get old in front of you while you stay the same, and that's just sad.” — 20 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
avg rating	preview: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Goodreads rating: 4.05 (140504 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6493208-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327878144l/6493208.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6493208-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot[/url]

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website