The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By way of introduction, I'm going to include the information you would read on Amazon if you wanted to know what this book is about.

From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. 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?

When I was doing my graduate work in Albany, I took a class called something like Black Women and Feminist Theory.  This book would have made a fabulous addition to our curriculum.  The author, Rebecca Skloot, became interested in HeLa cells when she was in a high school  biology class, and her interest remained until she graduated from college.  She doggedly researched the medical history and personal life of the obscure woman whose cells  live on and then wrote this fascinating book of her discoveries.

For class, we could have discussed medical care for blacks versus whites in the 50s as well as currently, and employment options for black women.  Another major theme is how we interact and support family members and keep memories of loved ones alive.  And then the question, as mentioned above, of who owns our bodies and what can be done with our tissues after they have been removed from our bodies.  There is also the currert debate among some about the HPV vaccine and who should receive it.  I can imagine a very heated discussion about trust in both our public and private lives.  Great stuff.

This is a good read.  Not only is it educational, it is compelling (I read it in about three days, while still taking care of my family).