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My 2 main thoughts for this book are "sad" and "thought-provoking".
SAD because what's happened to Henrietta Lacks and her children. I'm talking about the social effects of being treated differently as "coloured people" from back way when. Being of ethnic origin, I can attest to the Un-pleasantness of being treated as different (though I am lucky being different today is NOT as it was back then).
THOUGHT-PROVOKING for the book touches of 'gray areas' concerns. Is there any limit of scientific rese ...more
SAD because what's happened to Henrietta Lacks and her children. I'm talking about the social effects of being treated differently as "coloured people" from back way when. Being of ethnic origin, I can attest to the Un-pleasantness of being treated as different (though I am lucky being different today is NOT as it was back then).
THOUGHT-PROVOKING for the book touches of 'gray areas' concerns. Is there any limit of scientific rese ...more
This is a most amazing book, biography, social commentary, medical research ethics, all presented lucidly and with dignity. Starting with the life of Henrietta Lacks, who died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951, we learn about her family who do not learn of the use the scientific community has made of their mother's cells until years later. We are introduced to the doctors and researchers who used her cells to make great strides in scientific research. And we learn about the moral, ethical, and f
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I quite enjoyed this book. It gave so much of the back story on such an important scientific discovery. It is amazing how much impact the Hela cells had. I did appreciate the side cases that were related as well as the story of the family, in particular Henrietta's daughter.
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Riveting. Rebecca Skloot has told the story of one woman, Henrietta Lacks and her family. Tissue taken from Henrietta's cervical cancer has lived on and become the foundation of thousands of scientific studies. Through her amazing research and compassionate and clear story telling, Ms. Skloot has brought us an examination of race in the US, medical ethics and the legal issues surrounding human tissue research.
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The reader for the unabridged audiobook did an excellent job. She performed the different characters with sufficiently differentiated voices without overdoing the accents/dialects. I read this book immediately after reading In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences and the contrast is interesting. Capote completely leaves himself out of the story (even though he necessarily developed relationships with the folks he interviewed) and never mentions his own feelings. S
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Apr 11, 2010
Krista
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
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May 25, 2010
Gaijinmama
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Aug 07, 2010
Shelby
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Nov 18, 2010
AyferS
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Feb 26, 2011
Lisa
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Jul 03, 2011
Jane
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Mar 28, 2012
Ali
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