The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
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Format: Hardback
Price: Free - checked out from the library
Price: Free - checked out from the library
How I heard about it: Recommended by a friend
Basic Premise: Henrietta Lacks died in 1951 of cervical cancer, but she survived because doctors who didn't ask permission took her cells and replicated them, using them for further cancer studies, AIDS research, even sending them into space. They launched a multi-million dollar cell tissue industry and her family had no idea it was happening.
My Take: 8 out of 10 (scale here)
This book was endlessly fascinating. I really don't knowmuch anything about medical science (or regular science, to be frank), but I remember sitting in a coffee shop with my friend and former college roommate a few years ago and listening to her talk about this book. She said she had heard about HeLa cells all through her collegiate and professional training as a sonographer, but had never realized that "He" and "La" were the beginnings of the first and last name of the woman from whom they came 60 years ago. And she wasn't told. And neither was her family. And there are literally BILLIONS of these cells all over the planet. And she was black and this all happened at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. It sounded interesting.
It's a disjointed plot. Skloot skips back and forth, documenting both Henrietta's life and story beginning in the 30s, and her own story of learning about the cells, struggling to make contact with the family, and unearthing what really happened. There is quite a bit of science in the book, causing me to read slowly and deliberately, but I didn't mind it because it was all so interesting. I also appreciated (but also balked just a little at) the way Skloot presented nearly all the factual information without a detectable bias, despite the absolute injustice in certain points of the story.
The fact that the debate regarding human tissue and cell samples and who "owns" the rights to them is still going on and has not come to a legal consensus is fascinating to me. Though HeLa is probably the most well-known instance, there are a multitude of other cells, once belonging to humans who did not give consent and, in many cases, had no idea their cells were even taken, that are being bought and sold all over the world. If you've ever had any kind of -ectomy (as in a tonsillectomy, which I had just before I turned 20), it's unlikely the doctor just threw the removed tissue away. It's far more likely that it was passed on to researchers.
Interesting. I highly recommend this one if you want a bit of an academic read. It's a far cry from YAL!
List Progress:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Parenting with Love & Logic by Jim Fey
Silver Star Jeannette Walls
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins
My Take: 8 out of 10 (scale here)
This book was endlessly fascinating. I really don't know
It's a disjointed plot. Skloot skips back and forth, documenting both Henrietta's life and story beginning in the 30s, and her own story of learning about the cells, struggling to make contact with the family, and unearthing what really happened. There is quite a bit of science in the book, causing me to read slowly and deliberately, but I didn't mind it because it was all so interesting. I also appreciated (but also balked just a little at) the way Skloot presented nearly all the factual information without a detectable bias, despite the absolute injustice in certain points of the story.
The fact that the debate regarding human tissue and cell samples and who "owns" the rights to them is still going on and has not come to a legal consensus is fascinating to me. Though HeLa is probably the most well-known instance, there are a multitude of other cells, once belonging to humans who did not give consent and, in many cases, had no idea their cells were even taken, that are being bought and sold all over the world. If you've ever had any kind of -ectomy (as in a tonsillectomy, which I had just before I turned 20), it's unlikely the doctor just threw the removed tissue away. It's far more likely that it was passed on to researchers.
Interesting. I highly recommend this one if you want a bit of an academic read. It's a far cry from YAL!
List Progress:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Parenting with Love & Logic by Jim Fey
Silver Star Jeannette Walls
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum
Mocking Jay by Suzanne Collins
I can't wait to see what you think about Catcher in the Rye and Of Mice and Men!
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