Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By Rebecca Skloot

Broadway Books 2011

345 pages

From my shelves 

In 1951, a woman named Henrietta Lacks was informed that she had cancer. It had progressed too far for doctors to save her and she passed away. Little did Henrietta know that her doctor had harvested her cells and discovered that they were unique because they seemed to live forever and were easy to multiply. Those cells were utilized to create cures for many diseases and brought scientists millions of dollars. But none of that money went to Henrietta's family. Her own children didn't find out about the importance of the HeLa cells for decades. 

Reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks helped me to remember how wonderful non-fiction can be. The first thing I enjoyed about this book was the accessibility of the science. Author Rebecca Skloot is a science writer by trade and she explains the intricacies of cells in a way that is understandable without making you feel that she has dumbed down the science. I was truly fascinated by each concept and person that she introduced. 

But the science is really only one half of this story. Skloot interweaves the story of the people involved - Henrietta, her family, and Rebecca Skloot herself. She tells of the difficulty she had in getting in touch with the Lacks family and how hesitant they were to trust another white person after so many had taken advantage of them. She gets to really know Henrietta's children Deborah, Sonny, and Joe and discovers that they can't afford to treat their own health issues in spite of the millions of dollars made from their mother's cells. As Skloot learns that they have little more than half truths and misinformation about the role of their mother's cells, we can truly feel the indignation and grief of the Lacks family for a mother they hardly knew and the ways in which they have been lied to and ignored over and over again.

This book really made me think about medicine and the question of autonomy over your own body. I had never really considered the ethics of cells that have been removed. While I was horrified at some of the medical practices that were carried out during Henrietta's day, perhaps more shocking is the fact that in current times you still have limited control over your cells once they leave your body. If you have a mole removed, for example, it may become a part of someone's research and you would be none the wiser. Were you born in the past 50 years or so? Your blood is on file in a research lab somewhere because the government tests all infants for genetic diseases.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is many things. It's a primer on the way that cells function and how they can be used to cure disease. It is a call for readers to pay attention to medical ethics. It is the story of one ordinary woman and her incredible impact on the world. It's a book that you should not miss.