Rebecca Skloot

An astonishing audiobook -- a personal family drama mixed with the science of "donated" cells, in particular, Henrietta's cancer cells that have never stopped dividing.

The author discusses the confusing ethical and legal issue of who owns a patient's excised tissues, a problem that is still not resolved in the present day. When your cells are removed in a biopsy, where do those cells go? Disposed of? Frozen? Experimented on? I never thought about it. Some people are very concerned. I'm not. Perhaps I should be. But I'm certainly curious now.… (more)

I started reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot without much knowledge about HeLa cells and particularly little know about their widespread use in medical research. Skloot tells the story not only of Henrietta and her family but of the evolution of medical research combined with glimpses into the history of race relations in America, at least in part. Skloot focuses on Henrietta and the Lacks family in a way that sometimes feels almost invasive but nonetheless is fascinating. The Lacks family is a family like any other filled with interesting, multifaceted characters. There was an honesty and a rawness that was almost painful to read at times. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks demonstrates on almost every page just how interconnected we are. Skloot's investigation into the research that uses HeLa cells leaves little doubt that you and I are only alive today because of said research. Skloot tells a story that engages and enlightens by keeping the focus on the family and their experience even when she follows the HeLa cells to various labs around the world where they're used to make medical and scientific advances that benefit everyone even as the Lacks family struggles to make ends meet. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks weaves together the biography of a woman, a family saga, and a look into medical research in a way that is both thought provoking and enlightening.… (more)

Overall, a four star read that should probably be required reading for both biology and American history classes. (Actually, it was a far more interesting read than that makes it sound).

While I had heard a great deal of buzz on the book, I wasn't prepared for how the story evolved. The book alternates between Henrietta Lacks' personal history, that of her family, a little of medical history and Skoot's actual pursuit of the story, which helps develop the story in historical context. Skoots included a lot more science than I expected, and even with ten years in the medical field, I was horrified at times. Skoots does a decent job of maintaining a journalistic tone, but some of the things she relates are terrible, from the way Henrietta grew up to cervical cancer treatment in the 50s and 60s. These were the days before cancer treatments approached the precision medicine it is aiming for today, and the treatments resembled nothing so much as trying to cut fingernails with garden shears. Just the thought of a radioactive seed tucked in the uterus causing tissue burn was enough to give me sympathetic cramps.

Part of the evil in the book is the violence her family inflicted on each other, and it's one of the truly uncomfortable areas. I think that discomfort is important, because part of where this story comes from has to do with slavery and poverty. There isn't really an ethical high ground here, and that's part of Skoot's skill in setting up the story, and part of the problem in being a white woman telling the story of a black woman.

The only reason I didn't give this a five star rating is that the narrative started to fall apart at the end, leaving behind the stories of the cell line and focus more on the breakdown of Henrietta's daughter, Deborah. While I understand she is the touchstone for the story, that she is partly telling the story of the mother through the daughter, much of Henrietta and the science is sidelined.

Interesting questions popped up while reading; namely, why does everyone equate Henrietta's cancer cells with her person? As an illustration, if you tell people they have a cancerous tumor, the reaction is "get rid of it." It is categorized as "other" in everyone's mind and not recognized it as an intrinsic part of the person with cancer. It is not "them." Biologically speaking, I'm not sure the book answered the question of whether of not the HeLa cells actually were genetically identical to Henrietta, or if they were mutated--altered DNA. While that might be cold comfort, it's a huge philosophical and scientific question that is the pivot point for a number of issues. Treating the cells as if they were "normal" is part of what lead the scientists into disaster as evidenced by the discovery that so many cell lines were HeLa contaminated (I don't believe that transmission mechanism was explained either, which irks me). It also could be the basis for a sophisticated legal and ethical argument.… (more)