The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks in Daily Show / Colbert Report / Nightly Show / The Opposition

Jun 03, 2011 Carolyn rated it it was amazing

Her name was Henrietta Lacks. In 1951, the poor mother of five suffered from what she called “a painful knot on my womb”. She sought treatment at Johns Hopkins, the only charity hospital around that treated black patients. The diagnosis: cervical cancer. Before her death, her doctor cut out two dime-sized tissue samples from Lack’s cervix without her knowledge or consent. The lab assistant used an abbreviation of Lacks name, HeLa on her test tubes. Although she died soon after, her cells lived o Her name was Henrietta Lacks. In 1951, the poor mother of five suffered from what she called “a painful knot on my womb”. She sought treatment at Johns Hopkins, the only charity hospital around that treated black patients. The diagnosis: cervical cancer. Before her death, her doctor cut out two dime-sized tissue samples from Lack’s cervix without her knowledge or consent. The lab assistant used an abbreviation of Lacks name, HeLa on her test tubes. Although she died soon after, her cells lived on. Researcher George Gey soon realized that her cells (unlike any of the other samples he had studied) continuously reproduced and he began distributing her cells to other scientists and labs. The cells from her tumor would spawn a multi-billion dollar industry and became a foundation of modern science, leading to breakthroughs in the polio vaccine, cloning, fertility, cancer treatment, benefiting virtually anyone who has taken medicine stronger than an aspirin. Scientists have grown some 20 tons of her cells. HeLa led to the understanding that normal human cells have 46 chromosomes. NASA launched HeLa into orbit to test how human cells behave in zero-gravity. She has been all over the world.
In “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” Rebecca Skoot introduces us to the real life person who provided the cells and her children that still live on. Her children and their children still live in Virginia where their mother died and are still entrenched in the same debilitating poverty, while the HeLa cells have been lavished with money the world over. The book leaps back and forth from Henrietta’s life, to the Lacks family’s often painful history, to the scientific breakthroughs; to the dark truth that Henrietta’s children cannot afford the health insurance to treat diseases that their mother helped cure. As Lack’s daughter Deborah says, “If our mother’s cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?”
The story of Henrietta Lacks and her precious HeLa cells is complicated by the interplay of race, poverty, ethics and science. As modern science progresses meteorically, the laws and ethical implications are slow to catch up. Now, scientists have to get consent from patients in order to use a sample from them for scientific research (a law that many of the scientists bemoan). During Henrietta’s time, a doctor wouldn’t think to inform an illiterate black woman of his research. During this time, doctors were undertaking a number of medical procedures on African American women without their knowledge, let alone their consent. Some African American women were sterilized and their doctors never told them. In the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study of 1932, white doctors injected black men with syphilis without their knowledge, to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis. Lacks was just another example in which black bodies were seen as expendable commodities by white researchers and doctors who held little regard for the individual or their families.
In fact, Henrietta’s family was unaware of her strange celebrity until 1973. Then news was met with confusion and anger. Some members of the family felt that they’d been ripped off by the medical community and wanted some of the money Henrietta’s cells generated. For others, the revelation was the cause for embarking on a quest of understanding. Henrietta had her final child Deborah, and passed away a few months later. For Deborah, this was an opportunity to try to learn about her mother (and a sister who died in a mental institution) and to wrap her head around the confusing notion that her mother is both dead and alive. At one point, she goes to Johns Hopkins laboratory to “see” her mother for the first time.
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is a fascinating and well-written blend of science and history. It’s an intricately crafted investigation of a social wrong that led to scientific and medical miracles. I constantly found myself reevaluating what side of the argument I was on and hurting my brain with an endless supply of philosophical and scientific questions. What role should ethics play in the scientific world? Should scientists need to get consent from patients to use their samples to try and cure diseases? What kind of compensation should the Lacks family receive, or should they receive any at all? How dead can a person be if her cells a living vibrantly all throughout the world and space? It’s a tale about the wonders of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society’s most vulnerable people and everyone should read it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it became required reading in high school and college history courses. ...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Lily rated it it was amazing

A beautiful piece of history told behind the world of science. The Lack's family story is truly amazing. The stress they carried over so many years over their dearly loved mother is almost so unreal.

It was a delight to read. I smiled and giggled over the moments Skloot spend with Deborah. Too many hardships and injustices the Lack's family over came but now it all remains as history. It was truly an eye opener to the unethical justice was performed in the fifties.

SPOILER ALERT:
What really was ...more

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Feb 03, 2011 Bekah Porter-Sandy rated it really liked it

This book was an absolute breeze to read, with each page flying past faster than the previous.
Perhaps most enjoyable about this novel is that the author writes like the journalist she is, making each fact absolutely fascinating, offering context that puts the topic into perfect perspective, and she delivers an overarching view of a subject that could have easily been all scientific mumbo jumbo.
She gave this story life, and I love her for it =)
My only complaint (and it's a relatively small one) w ...more

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Jun 30, 2011 Joanna rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I started this book thinking it would be really simple: a basic biography of Henrietta Lacks and then go on to how her cells helped science. If not, the numerous awards and reviews of how fantastic it was were sure to lead me to expect more than what it was. I couldn't have been more wrong than if I saw a Wookie and called it an Ewok.

This book definitely deserved every award and every praise; it was everything and so much more than what I expected. The author not only covered Henrietta Lacks and ...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Ellyn rated it liked it

Skloot writes a sad and interesting story about the family of Henrietta Lacks. Unfortunately, she does not dig deep enough into the science aspect of the story. She only discusses the research done with the HeLa cells in a vague and general way.
Also, I was expecting more insight into the ethics and legalities of cell/tissue donation. This was only mentioned in a few of the chapters; again only briefly touching the surface of the issue.
Overall, this was a book was really a "how to" book explaini ...more

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Feb 08, 2011 Bobbi Lewis rated it liked it

Henrietta Lacks was the woman who's cancer cells were the first immortalized cell line and were used in medical research. It was definitely an enlightening read but not exactly what I expected. ...more

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