I've been aware of The Immortal Life of HEnrietta LAcks (#109) by Rebecca Skloot for quite awhile, but it took my Literary Circle choosing it as their initial selection for the 2011 - 2012 season to get me to read it. This non-fiction New York Times best seller tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a young black woman who died in 1951 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore of cervical cancer. Tissues from that tumor were taken and successfully cultured by scientist George Gey at Hopkins. Those cells form the basis of the HeLa strain used for research on diseases and development of drugs to treat them all over the globe. They are still alive today.
Henrietta's family knew nothing of the research that was being carried out for many years. When they did become aware, they struggled both to accept and understand what had happened, and to gain recognition for their mother's role in advancing medical science. The story is not pretty, but it is compelling. It raises a number of issues about privacy and the consent of the patient donating tissue samples knowingly or unknowingly. What is truly frightening in today's world of multi-billion tissue research is how little has actually been resolved concerning the protection of the patient and patient rights. (And just where is the gall bladder they removed from me a couple of years ago; who's using it, and for what purpose?!)
Rebecca Skloot has done an admirable job in making Henrietta Lacks and her family real to the reader. She also writes about the complex scientific discoveries and processes in a way that is easily understood by the lay person. In the process she has raised a number of troubling ethical and moral issues.
If you've ever so much as given blood for a lab test, you'll want to read this book. I can't wait to discuss it at our upcoming Literary Circle meeting.
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