Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Listened to the Audible recording.

Some of the time I really enjoyed this, other times I couldn't wait for it to be done. Three stars it is.

I learned much from reading this book, not only about medical history but also about ethics and about a family left in the dark for far too long.

Henrietta Lacks died in 1954. Cancer took her body and her life when she had five young children. Doctors took her cells when she was dying. They didn't tell her or her family for twenty years. Those cells are still alive, still multiplying, still being shipped around the world. If part of her is still alive, even when two of her children, her husband, her hometown and a good number of her family are dead, is Henrietta still alive?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about science and medicine. It's about race, sex and inequity. But mostly it's about a daughter's search for knowledge.

I won't go into the science behind Henrietta's story, partly because it's all explained in the book, partly because it's kind of weird, but mostly because I only kind of understand it. There is so many different ways to look at the case of HeLa, Henrietta and the Lacks family, that I will focus my thoughts on the ones that I can actually talk about without needing a textbook.

There are so many questions about Johns Hopkins and Henrietta. If she had had more money, if she had white skin, if she had a penis, would she have survived her cancer? Would Johns Hopkins taken her cells and told no one? Would they have asked first? Would the family have been compensated?

Of course, the answers to those questions are unknowable. I do think she probably would have died no matter her circumstance. Her cancer was so invasive, so malignant, that it was the first living cells to be cultured. That says something about what she was living with. She might have lived longer, but I don't think she could have survived, at least not in the 50s.

I could probably write a paper about the social justice implications in Henrietta's life, death, and continued life. But why should I, when Rebecca Skloot wrote a whole book about it?

Skloot's book is amazing. The way she describes the Lacks' lives is beautiful. It's a factual account that reads like a novelization. It's the novel-readers science book. She almost makes you forget that all of these people are real. Almost.

Skloot opens the book with the intention of writing about the science of HeLa, but instead focuses on her family. You can feel how Deborah affected Skloot. My only complaint is that I wish there was more information about Elsie, but I'm not sure that would have been possible, considering the circumstances.

The book highlights the stark contrast between medicine in the 50s and today. Could this happen today? The answer is, of course, yes. And it probably has, though not to the extent described in the book. Skloot makes sure to assure her readers that although confidentiality and ethics have improved by leaps and bounds, what Hopkins did to Henrietta is still completely legal.

Immortal Life is an excellent study of the human faces behind the world of bioresearch and patent research using human genes. Rebecca Skloot traces the history of He-La, the cells that will not die, and becomes part of the world of the family Henrietta left behind. Her meticulous research reveals the injustice of the segregated wards of John Hopkins and the motivations of early cell researchers who sought not personal profit but scientific advancement. The book raises important questions about who should gain from these bio products and how a market in human genetics can inhibit as well as encourage science. The singular achievement of Skloot's work, though, is the portrait of the Lacks family as she breaches the barriers of their anger and gains their trust. Immortal Life is as much a study of how our society has treated those who are powerless as it is a treatise on a perpetually-multiplying cluster of cells.

This was totally gripping in the way that only a book about immortal tumor cells and the scientists who love them could be. I seriously couldn't put it down.

A heartbreaking and eye-opening read. “The Immortal Life...” is not quite a biography of Mrs. Lacks, nor is it a thorough chronicling of her immortal HeLa cells' accomplishments. Instead, Rebecca Skloot has written a mixture of mystery, biography (of Deborah, Henrietta's daughter) and autobiography (of the author's search for HeLa's true origin). Having tracked down Henrietta's descendants in search of the HeLa story, Skloot discovers that the family knows much less of the truth than anyone might have imagined. The book's best moments come as Deborah transforms from a tortured soul to a child of divine purpose as she learns about the mother she never quite had. This is a sad book from beginning to end but the sense of discovery on every page is invigorating. Skloot is a powerful storyteller, able to deftly emphasize the human aspect of a story that is equally scientific and legislative. Particularly for those familiar with the research of today, Skloot reminds her readers that cell science is an alien world to many, and highlights Deborah's bravery as she fights to understand it.

Science has never been my favorite subject but when you put the story of people lives behind the science at the forefront I suddenly become intrigued.
I'm totally intrigued so far...

It's a compelling read that truly fleshes out an immortal cell line cultivated from an African American woman back in 1951. These HeLa cells were essential to developing a polio vaccine, they have been sent into space, blown up and used for decades. One scientist posits that if you could weigh all the HeLa cells ever grown they'd weigh more than 50 million metric tons.

It's a story about science, ethics, memory and family.

Very interesting true story, made even more interesting by all the layers - medical info, family history, and author's experiences. Amazing book!

This was one of the best books I've read in a long time. Highly recommend it! Great human interest story with a lot of moral and ethical questions. Something I will think about for a long time.

Very moving and eye-opening.

This was a fascinating book. It could have been a short story; Henrietta Lacks led a narrow life, marrying, having a few children, and then quickly getting and dying of cancer.




But something else happened. Her cancer cells were the first human cells to replicate rapidly and they were shipped here and there for study, for research, becoming one of the most studied cells in the world. Her family received nothing for these cells; in fact, most of her descendants don't even have health insurance! And her family, like Henrietta, was very poorly educated, leaving them bewildered about the nature of the cells themselves and Henrietta's role in history.




Very intriguing story.

Love the mix of history, race, class and science. Really shines a light on the ethics (or lack thereof) in medicine over time.

Went to a talk with Rebecca Skloot and history and chemsitry professors giving context. So excited to actually read the book...what a phenomenal (and heartbreaking) story, and sad that no one has thought to tell it until now.

Review is forthcoming...