Book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

[Erudite]

Title: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Author: Rebecca Skloot
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 363, but the last 40 or so are notes/bibliography

This is a very good book, not as good as the Biography of Cancer, but good. It is about the donor of HeLa cells and her family after her death. HeLa cells are used world-wide in research labs to study the effect of whatever (nuclear bombs, space travel, vaccinces, etc.) on human cells. They are so amazing because they come from a woman--Henrietta Lacks--who died in the 1950s, and the cells are still living and reproducing. Before these cells, scientists could not get cells to live outside the human body, so they could move forward in testing and studying the effect of many different things on human cells.

The book is a personal story of the author and her quest to discover and introduce to the world the donor of the HeLa cells. She had to do that through Henrietta's children and other family members. We learn quite a bit about Deborah, Henrietta's second daughter as a result and about Deborah's search to understand and come to terms with the idea that a part of her mother was still living.

I can't recommend this book unequivocably as it does use the F-word twice and includes descriptions of child abuse that are disturbing and thus shouldn't be read by young readers. Nevertheless, this book describes an important step in the scientific progress we've made in the last 60 years. It also introduces readers to the ethical questions behind donating (or even just having taken...like blood being drawn) tissues of any kind and in that way makes an important contribution to our understanding of fairly complex issues.