Several years back, I happened upon The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It was on a shelf of books that had been left behind by prior visitors at a hotel in Italy. I was pleased to find a book in English, one that had gotten good reviews no less.

I was taken with Henrietta Lacks' story. She was an African-American woman who died of an aggressive cervical cancer in 1951. A surgeon at Johns Hopkins took samples of the tumor which killed her, and these cells (unlike all others that had been tried previously) continued to reproduce; they became the first “immortal” human cells ever grown in a laboratory. An enormous boon to medical research, the HeLa cells (as they became known) were put into mass production. They were the first human cells to be successfully cloned, and were used for research on polio, cancer, and AIDS. Her family, uneducated and impoverished, knew nothing of this, until they were approached, many years later, by researchers, looking to learn about their genetic background. Unsurprisingly, they became hostile towards and distrustful of scientists and doctors.

Rebecca Skloot did a truly phenomenal job of explaining the science of the HeLa cells as well as the human story behind them, delving into the ethical issues of race and class in medical research, explaining the history of concepts like informed consent, and documenting her own interactions with Ms. Lacks’ descendants as she researched their background and attempted to tell their story with accuracy and justice.

There aren’t easy answers. Was the family wronged? Their privacy was certainly violated. Should they be owed compensation? Well, the scientists and researchers didn’t grow rich from the medical developments they worked on…and yet, it seems manifestly unfair that the HeLa cells (one of the most important things that happened in twentieth century medicine) couldn’t at least guarantee Ms. Lacks’ own family health insurance, decades later. There are no criminal masterminds here, though, and no villains, just flawed human beings. The author befriended Deborah Lacks-Pullum (Henrietta’s daughter) to learn about the family’s story, and tells it pretty dispassionately: there wasn’t a theft, but there was a serious structural injustice, which still affects our society today.

It’s an interesting story, well told, at times horrifically upsetting and at times inspirational. By all means, check it out. Whether you have a background in biology or not, you will learn something of value.

BOOK: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

AUTHOR: Rebecca Skloot

YEAR OF PUBLICATION: 2010

IMAGE: book cover, Crown