In 1951 an African-American woman died of cervical cancer in the colored ward of Johns Hopkins, founded as a hospital for the poor. Her doctors had routinely removed cells from her unusually virulent cancer. The cancer was fast acting and when the woman died, her body was riddled with tumors. Her name was Henrietta Lacks, and her cells have been used ever since for research and experimentation, resulting in many medical breakthroughs.
At that time, scientists had been trying to find a way to preserve cells, but all their attempts failed. None of the cells lived more than a few days. At Johns Hopkins the staff used their usual method of attempted preservation for Henrietta’s cells with little hope of success. Henrietta’s healthy cells died like the others, but not only did the cancerous cells survive, they reproduced dramatically.
Henrietta’s cells helped solve a fundamental problem in biological and medical research, that of having a supply of human cells readily available for use in various experimental studies. George Gey, the head of the department, immediately began shipping them to any scientist who needed them. Henrietta’s cells, called HeLa, are known and used throughout the world.
In the meantime, the Lacks family was completely unaware that Henrietta’s cells were in use. An impoverished family of little education, they had difficulty understanding the use the cells were put to when they did learn about them, which wasn’t until 1973. Even at that time, researchers at Johns Hopkins took further samples from the family without their informed consent. Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s daughter, understood them to be performing a test for cancer, not medically available at the time. Even though the removal of Henrietta’s cells was commonplace in the 1950’s and did not break any medical code of ethics, at the later time that further samples were taken from the family, this was certainly not the case.
In clear prose, Rebecca Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks’ cells and their uses in the biomedical industry but also the story that has hitherto been neglected, that of Henrietta herself and her family. The book brings up issues of racial discrimination, medical ethics, and other issues in biomedical research, such as cell contamination. It also affectingly tells the story of the Lacks family.
What? Me Read? 
I love this book! It made me want to write like this and to conduct research like this. It really is a remarkable story, both from the family’s perspective and from Skloot’s journey.
Yes, it is. I think that writing about science topics for the general public is still a largely untapped field. These books are especially interesting when they have a human component.
This has been on my TR list forever — I’ve got to read it! Thank you for the review!
You’re welcome! I hope you like it.
I found this book just riveting. For me it was the rare book that actually lived up to the hype. I really felt Rebecca Skloot’s determination to get this story written – talk about a labor of love!
Yes, she clearly dedicated herself to the project.
So… did you end up liking the book? It was selected as the University-wide “official book” at my school in 2012, I think, but I heard some negative things about it and didn’t end up reading it.
I thought it was pretty good. I have a lot harder time with nonfiction than fiction, but it was readable and interesting. I gave it a three on Goodreads, I think. Really, to get a four from me, a work of nonfiction has be extraordinary, because I get so much more involved with good fiction. I realized I maybe sounded more noncommittal than I meant to be.
Hmm I feel the same way toward nonfiction. Usually it just isn’t as interesting or creative. Usually. Well, at any rate, I’m quite familiar with this book by now so if I stumble across it in the future I might give it a read.
Just sort of kidding here, but usually I don’t give a book five stars unless it makes me cry. Nonfiction books are more likely to make me cry because of frustration! Not really, but I bet you get it!
haha I definitely do!!
I have heard lots of good things about this book, but I’m more of a fiction reader too, so I have to be pretty convinced that a non-fiction is going to be worth it. This one is getting there, I think.
It is pretty interesting. I’m just not likely to rave about it, like some reviewers did.