Margitte's Reviews > The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The gift of life is surely the greatest gift of all. So how can the story of the remarkable woman who gave that gift over and over again to millions of people have been overlooked for so long?

In 1951 a poor African American woman in Maryland became an uninformed donor to medical science. Henrietta Lacks died at age 31 of cervical cancer at John Hopkins hospital in Baltimore. Then doctors discovered that tumor cells they had removed from her body earlier continued to thrive in the lab - a medical first.

Before long, her cells, dubbed HeLa cells, would be used for research around the world, contributing to major advances in everything from cancer treatments to vaccines; from aging to the life cycle of mosquitoes; nuclear bomb explosions to effect of gravity on human tissue during flights to outer space. An estimated 50 million metric tons of her cells were reproduced; thousands of careers have been build, and initiated more than 60 000 scientific studies until now, but Henrietta Lacks never gave permission for that research, nor had her family.

In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot gracefully tells the story of the real woman and her descendants; the history of race-related medical research, including the role of eugenics; the struggles of the Lacks family with poverty, politics and racial issues; the phenomenal development of science based on the HeLa cells, in a language that can be understood by everyone. She combined the family's story with the changing ethics and laws around tissue collection, the irresponsible use of the family's medical information by journalists and researchers and the legislation preventing the family from benefiting from it all.

COMMENTS
I was gifted this book in December but never realized the impact it had internationally, neither would have on me. Until I finished reading it last night, I did not know it was an international bestseller, as well as read by so many of my GR friends! It was total surprise, since nonfiction is normally not a regular star on bestseller lists, right?

The debate around the moral issue, and the experiences of the poor family were very well presented in the book, which was truly well written and objective as far as possible.

For me personally, the question of how this woman, who basically saved millions of people's lives, were overlooked, is answered in the arrogance of scientists who deemed it unnecessary to respect the rights of people unable to fend for themselves.

The ethical and moral dilemmas it created in America, when the family became aware of their mother's contribution to science without anyone's knowledge or consent, just enabled the commercial enterprises who benefited massively from her cells, to move to other countries where human rights are just a faint star in a unlimited universe. The Lacks family drew a line in the sand of how far people must be exploited in America. Unfortunately the medical fraternity just moved their operations elsewhere.

Tissue and organ harvesting thrive in the world, it is globally a massive industry, with the poorest of the poor still the uninformed donors. An open secret. There are numerous stories, especially in India, where people wake up and realize they were operated on and one of their organs is missing. Stolen. By the time they became aware of it, the organ had already been transplanted in America and elsewhere in the world. That's no secret.

Everything is justified as long as science is involved.

Nowadays people in other parts of the world sell their organs, even though it is illegal in most countries. According to American laws people cannot sell their tissue, which is part of human organs? People can donate it though, then it is acceptable.Yet someone else can patent your cells, but you're not allowed to be compensated, since the minute it leaves your body, it is regarded as waste, disposed of, and therefor not deemed your 'property' anymore. Huh?

This book was a good and necessary read. The human interest side of it, telling the story of the family was eye-opening and excellent. A little bit of melodramatic, but how else would it become a bestseller, if ordinary readers like us could not relate to it. It was very well-written indeed.

Thanks to Rebecca Skloot, in 2010, sixty years later, HeLa now has a history, a face and an address. Finally, Henrietta Lacks, and not the anonymous HeLa, became a biological celebrity.

In 1951 Dr. Grey's lab assistant handled yet just another tissue sample of hundreds, when she received Henrietta's to prepare for research. She named it HeLa(first two letters of the patient's name and last name). But a few months later she visited the body of the deceased Henrietta Lacks in the mortuary to collect more samples. When she saw the woman's red-painted toenails, a lightbulb went on.

Mary Kubicek: “Oh jeez, she’s a real person. . . . I started imagining her sitting in her bathroom painting those toenails, and it hit me for the first time that those cells we’d been working with all this time and sending all over the world, they came from a live woman. I’d never thought of it that way.”

John Hopkins hospital could have considered naming a wing of their research facilities after Henrietta Lack. Why don't they?

Nevertheless, this book should be read by everybody. Without it the world would have been a lot poorer and less human.

The world has a lot to answer for.

RECOMMENDED for sure!

EDIT
I googled the Lacks family and landed upon the website of the Lacks Foundation, which was started by Rebecca Skloot.
http://henriettalacksfoundation.org/

That news TOTALLY made my day. I wish them all the best and hope they will succeed in their goals and dreams. A wonderful initiative. Just imagine what can be accomplished if every single person, organization, research facility and medical company who benefitted for Henrietta Lacks's tissue cells, donate only $1 (one single dollar)? Yes, just imagine that!

So many positive things happened to the family after the book was published. It just brings tears of joy to my eyes.
http://www.lacksfamily.net/index.php

And finally:
May 29, 2010
A Historic Day: Henrietta Lacks’s Long Unmarked Grave Finally Gets a Headstone
thanks to Dr. Roland Pattillo at Morehouse School of Medicine, who donated a headstone after reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.