The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories? --Tom Nissley



Skloot raises important questions about poverty, science, research and medical ethics in a book that reads more like a novel than reality. It is fascinating, deeply troubling and essential reading about medical issues that are still important today.  In the 1950's, Henrietta Lacks, a young African-American mother of five, is diagnosed with a cervical tumor at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her doctor removes some of her cancerous cells without her knowledge. Henrietta eventually passes away from her disease, but her cells live on. HeLa cells, as they are known, multiplied and multiplied...becoming the first human cells to do so in a laboratory. Since that time, HeLa cells have been used in experiments that have led to some of the greatest scientific innovations in the past century.
Author: Rebecca Skloot

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