Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

A few weeks ago Matt and I were driving to North Carolina and I was having a bit of a meltdown about how not one single thing in our country is okay and everything is terrible and all the things are interconnected so how on earth are we going to be able to sort out this giant mess.

Matt said, you can't think of a single thing that we're doing well here? I said I was having a hard time thinking of anything, and he said, well, we've made great strides in cancer research, it's not always a death sentence anymore.

I agreed with him, but mostly to get him to stop talking. Because yes, I know it's not always a death sentence, but it seems like most of the treatments are still fairly terrible and also ... I don't know any scientists, most of the people I'm around regularly are engineers of various spots, and so how many people could actually be scientists doing cancer research, it couldn't possibly be that many.

Matt and I were having a coffee date yesterday, and I was reading this book, and at one point I looked up at him and said, remember that conversation about cancer research? I didn't believe you, that this was as big an industry as it is, that scientists worldwide are working on this. And he was like, uh yeah this is a multi-billion dollar industry! And I'm like yeah yeah I didn't believe you knew what you were talking about, but I do now.

Of course, there are lots of ethical problems with how we've made those strides... and I'm going to be thinking about that for a while. I'm glad Skloot also included stories of other people trying to sue for their tissue rights, and about the complicated ethics of tissue storage from normal people. The legal issues were fascinating.

This book taught me a lot of things about a lot of things I didn't know, and I'm glad I read it. Skloot wrote in a straightforward and engaging manner that helped me to understand subjects I had never heard of before, and helped me to not mix up a huge cast of characters. An excellent book.