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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot (Goodreads Author)

4.09 · rating details · 50,273 ratings · 10,470 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....moreHer 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)

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Mar 17, 2011

Kemper rated it

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 ...more

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Aug 08, 2011

Laura rated it

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 tra...more

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Jan 15, 2011

Petra X rated it

Shelves: 2010, 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 fami...moreThis 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)

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Sep 04, 2010

Liz Nutting rated it

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...moreWhen 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.
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Sep 04, 2010

Jeanette rated it

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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 w...more

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Dec 18, 2010

Mag rated it

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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 ...more

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Apr 16, 2011

K.D. rated it

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...moreI 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...
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Jul 17, 2010

Jude rated it

· 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

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Feb 24, 2011

Rach rated it

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, favorites

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 o...moreIf 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)

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Feb 13, 2011

Kathleen rated it

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 l...more

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Jun 07, 2010

rmn rated it

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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 a...more

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Jul 09, 2011

Jamie rated it

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 ...more

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Dec 05, 2010

Will rated it

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

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...moreOn 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.
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Jun 10, 2010

Khaya rated it

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Recommends it for: Just about anyone

Recommended to Khaya by: goodreads

Shelves: audiobooks, readablenonfiction, miscellaneousgreatbooks

I blew through this fascinating audiobook, practically manufacturing housework to do so that I'd have an excuse to plug myself in (okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration; there was plenty of housework to do without my having to manufacture any). I would recommend this book to just about anyone seeking a great read -- even if you're usually more of a fiction person, this non-fiction book offers plenty of interesting characters and storylines as well as being informative and provocative in the way...moreI blew through this fascinating audiobook, practically manufacturing housework to do so that I'd have an excuse to plug myself in (okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration; there was plenty of housework to do without my having to manufacture any). I would recommend this book to just about anyone seeking a great read -- even if you're usually more of a fiction person, this non-fiction book offers plenty of interesting characters and storylines as well as being informative and provocative in the way of non-fiction.

Did you know that much of medical research (and the benefits we derive every day, including many routine vaccines and medications we take for granted) is dependent on a culture of human cells that continue to live and reproduce even after their original owner died in 1951? Well, I didn't. And I wouldn't have thought that this factoid would interest me particularly, not being much of a science person myself. But somehow, Rebecca Skloot was able to make the dynamics surrounding these cells not only comprehensible to me but intriguing (no small feat).

Even more intriguing, though, was the story of the late human being behind these cells, Henrietta Lacks, who never knew that her cells had been taken for research. Henrietta's surviving children, tragically losing their mother at a young age to cervical cancer and raised in a poor and abusive environment, only learned about this later in life and never saw a penny of the proceeds.

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" contains several stories. There is the story of Henrietta, a poor young African American woman with incurable cervical cancer, and of her children struggling to grow up without her after her early death. There is the story of the doctor who decided to slice off pieces of her tumor just prior to her death without asking or even informing her, who then discovered that these cancerous cells were immortal. There is the story of the cells, which began to be mass-produced and distributed to researchers for a wide variety of interesting and often ground-breaking experiments. And there is the story of Rebecca Skloot, a journalist who was persistent and dogged in her efforts to win Henrietta's family's reluctant trust (after they had been duped by others attempting to capitalize on Henrietta) so that she could learn and tell their story.

Henrietta's adult children in this book are colorful characters with their own stories who overcame some difficult situations, some more successfully than others. We also meet different doctors and researchers -- while some prove to be profiteers, others are truly dedicated to science for its own sake. The doctor who originally took Henrietta's tumor for research without her knowledge fell into the latter category, which is part of what makes this a three-dimensional book rather than a simplistic polemic. A product of his times, this 1950s doctor was less sensitive to the medical and research ethics which have since received more attention, particularly when it came to a poor African-American woman.

Should you care if someone uses your body tissues for medical research without your consent? Before I began reading this book, my thought was, why the heck would I care? Assuming that these tissues need to be removed in any case, why not use them to do some good for science and for mankind? But Rebecca offers some anecdotes which complicate this question, and the irony running throughout the book is that Henrietta's descendants cannot afford decent medical care, even as the entire medical profession benefits from Henrietta's unwittingly donated cells.

Even if you think you're not a science person, even if you think you're not a non-fiction person, I would recommend checking this book out.(less)

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Jun 01, 2010

Gail rated it

Shelves: science

This book is so great on multiple levels but here's two:

Level 1: It's just a fascinating story. Period. The birth of today's multi-billion (trillion?) bio-tech industry started with a few immortal cells that came from the cervix of one poor black woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks. Her family didn't know her cells were taken for decades. They never received a dime of all the money made off of them. As in, to this day. And that's a damn shame.

Level 2: Rebecca Skloot is ...more

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Jan 14, 2011

Dianah rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: CeceHughleyNoel

Shelves: favorites, science, unowned

This is an absolutely fascinating account of a line of cells that would
proliferate to such a degree that they became immortal. Shaved from a
tumor in a poor black woman in the 1950's, cultured without her knowledge, and grown to amazing proportions, HeLa cells would change the face of science and medicine forever. Pivotal in the search for disease obliteration, HeLa would prove invaluable because it simply would not die. Yet, Henrietta Lacks did die, in pain and obscurity, and her ...more

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May 15, 2011

Austin Hannig is currently reading it

This book so far is very interesting. It is a very good read. It has definitley contributed to my personla enlightenment. I have learned a lot about african-american culture in the 1950s. Also learned more about how far segregation went. This included all the way to hospitals. Only certain hospitals trerated african-americans. The hospital that treats Henrietta Lacks is John Hopkins. This is one of the few that treated african-americans. A lot of hospitals would not treat african-americans even ...more

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Dec 14, 2011

Moonbutterfly rated it

Shelves: biography, health-and-food

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Overview

Train Wreck! I expected to read about Henrietta Lacks and how she was exploited by the medical industry. Instead the book was mostly about Henrietta’s children and their beliefs of what happened to their mother. I assumed this would lead to a serious discussion on bioethics. The closest the author comes is the afterword. It appears sensationalism and melodrama was preferred over boring, important, details.

The chronology of the book is a mess. The book jumps around an...moreOverview

Train Wreck! I expected to read about Henrietta Lacks and how she was exploited by the medical industry. Instead the book was mostly about Henrietta’s children and their beliefs of what happened to their mother. I assumed this would lead to a serious discussion on bioethics. The closest the author comes is the afterword. It appears sensationalism and melodrama was preferred over boring, important, details.

The chronology of the book is a mess. The book jumps around and the reader has to piece together ideas throughout the book. When the information is pieced together, one can see the flaws and contradictions. There is also this tendency of inserting information but never explaining it. For example consent is a big theme in this book. However in chapter thirty-four, we are told that Henrietta did sign a consent form when the HeLa sample was taken. The author doesn't dwell on this one sentence and moves on. Why?

Contradictions

Another big topic in the book is racism which appears very early in the book. The author recalls several studies, such as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, and shows how these experiments targeted blacks. The author is implying that racism played a part in Henrietta's case. But then in chapter eight, the book states "there's no way of knowing whether or how Henrietta’s treatment would have differed if she'd been white." But then switches course and states "but several studies have shown that black patients were treated and hospitalized at later stages of their illnesses than white patients." The author then uses Henrietta's medical records in an attempt to prove that doctors delayed treatment.

Keep in mind, the book just stated in chapter five, that Henrietta health started to deteriorate when she caught gonorrhea. So Henrietta’s now has gonorrhea and syphilis superimposed on radiation treatments. In the end the author does not prove racism, but shows how aggressive the cancer was when she examines the medical records. In other words, she disproved her own point. This hop-scotch logic would continue throughout the book.

The Family
It appeared to me the author was trying to gain sympathy for this family, but in my eyes she did more damage than good. I have no sympathy for anyone who murders someone in cold blood. The other two brothers seemed more interested in monetary gains. So the only family member I felt sympathy for was Deborah. She seemed like the only family member that cared about her mother’s legacy. The author should have focused on Deborah and summarized the rest of the family. Then there is the issue with the author making herself a character in the book. To me this was in poor taste and somewhat indulgent.
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May 20, 2011

♥ Marlene♥ rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Finished this book last night.
I did not know beforehand what this book would be about so when I started reading about cells and tissue matter and cancer I thought to myself. O no, This is not a book for me! The next morning I woke up and felt a pain and immediately thought "do I have cancer?" Yes I am a bit of a hypochondriac, I admit it. lol.
Anyways, I did find it very interesting cause I had the worst biology teacher ever (or maybe it was me come to think of it, worst pup...more

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Jan 03, 2011

Chelsea rated it

Shelves: 1-nonfiction, 3-race-ethnicity, 3-science-health, 2011, 3-biography

This could have been an incredible book. Henrietta Lacks' story is finally told--and Skloot makes very clear how important Lacks' cells have been to the last 60 years of science and, paradoxically, how much Henrietta and her family suffered because those cells were taken from Henrietta without her consent.

But in her effort to contrast the importance and profitability of Henrietta's cells with the marginalization and impoverishment of Henrietta's family, Skloot makes three really big...more

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Jun 13, 2011

Kate rated it

· 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.

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Jan 25, 2012

Keisha rated it

I think this book just changed my life.

This story is upsetting and unbelievable as it stands, but when you put it in context of time, attitudes, and other experimentation done on poor people, Black people, prisoners and more it almost makes sense. Many of the things we take for granted today and argue over- such as vaccines, gene therapy, cosmetics testing, cell research, medication, etc would not be possible if Doctors had not stolen cells from Henrietta Lacks in the 1950's.
...more

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Jun 28, 2011

Ruth rated it

Recommended to Ruth by: Susan & book club

This remarkable book seems as if it could only come from pure fantasy, yet it is an amazing and true story of one woman's life and how in her death she touched the world. It begins in the 1940s, telling the story of the life of Henreitta Lacks, a young black woman, barely in her thirties. Mother of five children and pregnant again, she sought medical help from Hopkins hospital complaining of a "knot in her stomach that hurt a lot". She was received in the public ward of the hospital ...more

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Jul 26, 2011

Lanier rated it

July 26, 2011 - Quito Ecuador
Finished this amazing book while stuck in Crack-Ass, Venezuela Airport!
Sad, but powerfully important read for all in scientific research, law, civil rights and other areas of interests.

More later, back to sleep....

6-24-11
page 55
Well written, intriguing ethical, moral, scientific debates that will hopefully be resolved sooner rather than later.

39—41
HeLa cells, stolen from a dying poor black woman of con...more

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May 12, 2010

Leslie Jenison rated it

· review of another edition

I listened to this as an audiobook. What a fascinating story. I love how the author became intrigued by the story of the HeLa cells, and the fact that it took her 10 years to do the research for the book.
There are so many things to consider when thinking about this story: how far we have come in terms of treatment modalities for cancer, the ethics of medical research, privacy of information, informed consent, providing information to patients in language that they can understand. P...more

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Jul 24, 2011

Cornerofmadness rated it

· 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 ...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.
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Apr 08, 2010

Katherine rated it

Others have summarized the key points of this book better than I could. It's a fascinating story weaving so many different skeins, as it veers between Henrietta's story, the work of the scientists studying her cells, the fate of Henrietta's family, and the author herself.

A secondary mystery in the book concerns Henrietta's oldest daughter... what was wrong with her and what happened to her? When you find out, it's devastating emotionally - and also a damning indictment of the instit...more

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May 16, 2011

Karla rated it

I love the writing style of Rebecca Skloot. She made every part of this book interesting. It was hard to put it down. This book was fascinating! This is a story about Henrietta Lacks, her family, and the use of her cells for medical research.

The Lacks family had no clue that samples of Henrietta's tissues were taken when she went to Hopkins hospital for cervical cancer. Her cells were sent to Dr. George Gey, head of tissue culture research at Hopkins. At that time, consent was ...moreI love the writing style of Rebecca Skloot. She made every part of this book interesting. It was hard to put it down. This book was fascinating! This is a story about Henrietta Lacks, her family, and the use of her cells for medical research.

The Lacks family had no clue that samples of Henrietta's tissues were taken when she went to Hopkins hospital for cervical cancer. Her cells were sent to Dr. George Gey, head of tissue culture research at Hopkins. At that time, consent was not required to use patients tissue for research. Dr. George Gey was trying to grow cells in his lab. He was unsuccessful, until he was given a sample of Henrietta's cervical cancer cells. Amazingly, her cancer cells continued multiply and live. Henrietta's immortal cells, known as HeLa have helped create many vaccines and cure diseases. HeLa cells are still used today for research. Her cells launched a medical revolution and a multimillion-dollar industry. More than twenty years after Henrietta's death the Lacks family found out about the use of her cells.

The Lacks family unfortunately have always lived in poverty, while others are getting millions off of Henrietta's cells. The family is glad that their mother's cells have been able to help so many, but, if anybody should be getting money for the use Henrietta's cells it should be them. I feel for the Lacks Family, and their horrible past, but at the same time, I really don't think they should be given monetary rewards for Henrietta's Cells. During that time period, consent was not needed to take tissue samples for research. No one knew the cells would grow. If they had not, nothing would have come from them, and the issue of the family deserving money would not exist. The only thing that makes the Lack's family different from any other black family, in that time period, is that Henrietta's cells actually grew.

Dr. George Gey was the mastermind in figuring out how to grow the cells, yet he did not get rich off of his research either. He was passionate about his work and excited that he was able to accomplish his goal. He gave the cells he grew, and his inventions away for free. Gey was not the focus of this book, but I think if there were more people passionate in their work, like him, science could make so many more advances. Instead we are a generation of people worrying about putting patents on EVERYTHING! This attitude has hindered medical advances. Our goal should be finding cures rather than making money off of everyone and everything. It's too bad there aren't more people in the world like Dr. George Gey.(less)

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Apr 03, 2011

Diana rated it

The field of sceince is ever revoloving. Each day advances are being made that in some form impact our lives. However, these new treatments and advancements are usually just seen through an end product, a result; who these advances were tested on or how they started is rarely looked at. The people behind the science go unknown.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, weaves science, history, life and one family's anger and pain in one complete and well written story. You travel back in ...more

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Jul 29, 2011

Del Zimmerman rated it

In this carefully written biography, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor African American woman whose life provided one of the most important contributions to science in the 20th century. When Henrietta was admitted to John Hopkins for cancer treatment in the early 1950s, doctors took cervical cell tissue and were able to produce the first culture of living cells outside the human body. Those cells have flourished and still exist today. What's more, they have provided the b...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Challenge: 50 Books: Katie's 2012 50+ Book Challenge	2	8	Feb 09, 2012 07:31pm
Could HeLa cells contaminate vaccines?	6	90	Feb 08, 2012 07:16pm
DC PBK Book Club: Nuremberg Code and Belmont Report	1	3	Feb 08, 2012 02:32am
DC PBK Book Club: The Way of All Flesh by Adam Curtis	1	3	Feb 08, 2012 02:06am
DC PBK Book Club: Baltimore Sun Article on Henrietta Lacks from 1997	2	5	Feb 08, 2012 01:53am
DC PBK Book Club: UMD Library Guide to the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks	1	5	Feb 05, 2012 03:37am
Katie's 2012 50 Book Challenge	2	36	Feb 04, 2012 01:39am

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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

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“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.” — 24 people liked it

“Some things you got to release. Gary said. The more you hold them in, the worse you get. When you release them, they got to go somewhere else. The Bible says He can carry all that burden.” — 11 people liked it

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