The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot  369 pp.

This is the incredible, upsetting, maddening, heartwarming, and very interesting story of how one woman's cancer cells survived and reproduced for over 50 years, long after she had died. The so-called HeLa cells became the most important tool in the search for cures for a variety of diseases. But little was known about the woman, her life, and her family until Skloot began her research. In fact, many believed the cells belonged to a woman named Helen Lane. What emerged is a story of an impoverished family with many problems who didn't know anything about the importance of Henrietta's cells. When they did learn that a part of her still lived and was being experimented on, they were not educated enough to really understand what was being done or why they had never been told. The book raises the issues of medical ethics, who owns tissue removed from patients, and who can profit from it.