The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

In her first book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, writer Rebecca Skloot cleverly weaves a tale of scientific discovery with the story of a poor black woman who died of cancer in the 1950's. That woman was Henrietta Lacks, the body behind a cultured line of cells named HeLa that have done everything from traveling to outer space to playing an integral role in the development of the polio vaccine.

Skloot takes us through Lacks' childhood as a member of a poor, black sharecropping Southerner to her move to Baltimore where her husband found work in the steel factory during WWII. Her philandering husband most likely gave her the HPV that precipitated her cervical cancer, a slice of which ultimately became the first line of cells to be successfully cultured for experimentation. Her family had no idea that Lacks' cells were being used in this manner and eventually, when they did learn of it, they ultimately lacked the education to understand what a significant contribution to science the cells had made.

This is a story about science and about a poor black family, full of ignorance and tainted by poverty and illness even before birth. We may all be born equal in the eyes of the law, but Lacks' children were born touched by syphilis, with the accompanying impacts on IQ and competence. This narrative is both heartbreaking and stunningly effective in demonstrating the ethical dilemmas of research medicine, particularly when subjects are impoverished or unable to comprehend the implications of their participation. From a woman who doesn't understand the basic mechanics of cellular structure to researchers performing some of the most consequential and advanced cytological studies, Skloot manages to weave a true history of the women behind the cells, her descendants and the paradoxical centrality and irrelevance of their family to science.

Fascinating book. I highly recommend it.