The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a story about Henrietta Lacks and the cancer cells that killed her and afterward, revolutionized science. It is about the Lacks family and how the decades without proper recognition contributed to their disadvanteged social position. And to a lesser extent, it is also about medical ethics and racial inequality.
In writing a book review, I begin to understand why Skloot’s book is so popular. Not only well written, with a good narrative ark and memorable characters, it also touches on many niche subjects. There’s really something for everyone.
It’s a book club read for sure.
So who was Henrietta Lacks?
She was a young black woman living in Baltimore in the 1950s. She had cervical cancer and sought treatment at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Unfortunately, the treatment was not enough to save her life. At death, she left behind a husband and five children, some of whom are still living today.
While undergoing treatment at Johns Hopkins, some of her cancer cells were sampled and saved. This was done without Mrs. Lacks’ consent as was typical at the time.
What were later to be labeled HeLa cells, had a very particular property; they could survive in laboratory conditions, apart from their original host. And they could continue to reproduce themselves in perpetuity given the right conditions.
The biological sciences were just starting to industrialize in the 1950s, and the scientific and medical fields were still young. So the reproductive capacity and survivability of HeLa cells would have an outsized impact on these fields.
HeLa cells would be used in medical experiments and at the base of countless disease and genetic studies and were used to develop many lucrative drugs.
Meanwhile, the Lacks family continued in poverty, uninformed of the enormous contribution that their mother’s cells were providing.
In later years reporters and historians would look for information about the donor of HeLa cells. Rolling Stone published an article about Henrietta Lacks in 1976, and the BBC aired a documentary about her in 1998. But the fame and attention also brought predatory actors to the Lacks family. People who would seek other biological samples, or seek to raise money by filing false lawsuits.
All the bad attention directed at the Lacks family left them mistrusting scientific authorities and outsiders. At least, outsiders looking for information about Henrietta Lacks.
Rebecca Skloot’s journey to trace down Henrietta’s daughter, Deborah, to interview for her book is an odyssey of negotiation and trust building. Deborah becomes the main charactor of the book, and her quirks are unforgettable.
What Skloot imparts to the reader is that Henrietta Lacks was a real person whose death hurt friends and family. She stresses the irony and injustice that while HeLa cells have earned drug companies millions of dollars, the Lacks family continues to be neglected by America’s healthcare system.
Rebecca Skloot has tried to bring recognition and aid to the Lacks family by establishing the Henrietta Lacks Foundation.
Other topics in the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks are informed consent, tissue ownership, legacy, racism, profit in science, and inequality.
Anyone interested in medical history, sociology, or just a good story will enjoy the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Did you read the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks? What did you think? Is it unjust what happened with the Lacks family? Could this same kind of thing happen again today?