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Now a major motion picture from HBO® starring Oprah Winfrey and Rose Byrne.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.
Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.
Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.
Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?
Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
- Sales Rank: #650708 in Books
- Published on: 2010-02-02
- Released on: 2010-02-02
- Formats: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 10
- Dimensions: 5.83" h x 1.17" w x 5.07" l, .63 pounds
- Running time: 750 minutes
- Binding: Audio CD
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks unabridged audio
- Random House Audio Book
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks audio book
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2010: From a single, abbreviated life grew a seemingly immortal line of cells that made some of the most crucial innovations in modern science possible. And from that same life, and those cells, Rebecca Skloot has fashioned in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family, of how life is sustained in laboratories and in memory. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue, taken without her knowledge or consent, as was the custom then, turned out to provide one of the holy grails of mid-century biology: human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio. Meanwhile, Henrietta's family continued to live in poverty and frequently poor health, and their discovery decades later of her unknowing contribution--and her cells' strange survival--left them full of pride, anger, and suspicion. For a decade, Skloot doggedly but compassionately gathered the threads of these stories, slowly gaining the trust of the family while helping them learn the truth about Henrietta, and with their aid she tells a rich and haunting story that asks the questions, Who owns our bodies? And who carries our memories? --Tom Nissley
Amazon Exclusive: Jad Abumrad Reviews The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Jad Abumrad is host and creator of the public radio hit Radiolab, now in its seventh season and reaching over a million people monthly. Radiolab combines cutting-edge production with a philosophical approach to big ideas in science and beyond, and an inventive method of storytelling. Abumrad has won numerous awards, including a National Headliner Award in Radio and an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science Journalism Award. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks:
Honestly, I can't imagine a better tale.
A detective story that's at once mythically large and painfully intimate.
Just the simple facts are hard to believe: that in 1951, a poor black woman named Henrietta Lacks dies of cervical cancer, but pieces of the tumor that killed her--taken without her knowledge or consent--live on, first in one lab, then in hundreds, then thousands, then in giant factories churning out polio vaccines, then aboard rocket ships launched into space. The cells from this one tumor would spawn a multi-billion dollar industry and become a foundation of modern science--leading to breakthroughs in gene mapping, cloning and fertility and helping to discover how viruses work and how cancer develops (among a million other things). All of which is to say: the science end of this story is enough to blow one's mind right out of one's face.
But what's truly remarkable about Rebecca Skloot's book is that we also get the rest of the story, the part that could have easily remained hidden had she not spent ten years unearthing it: Who was Henrietta Lacks? How did she live? How she did die? Did her family know that she'd become, in some sense, immortal, and how did that affect them? These are crucial questions, because science should never forget the people who gave it life. And so, what unfolds is not only a reporting tour de force but also a very entertaining account of Henrietta, her ancestors, her cells and the scientists who grew them.
The book ultimately channels its journey of discovery though Henrietta's youngest daughter, Deborah, who never knew her mother, and who dreamt of one day being a scientist.
As Deborah Lacks and Skloot search for answers, we're bounced effortlessly from the tiny tobacco-farming Virginia hamlet of Henrietta's childhood to modern-day Baltimore, where Henrietta's family remains. Along the way, a series of unforgettable juxtapositions: cell culturing bumps into faith healings, cutting edge medicine collides with the dark truth that Henrietta's family can't afford the health insurance to care for diseases their mother's cells have helped to cure.
Rebecca Skloot tells the story with great sensitivity, urgency and, in the end, damn fine writing. I highly recommend this book. --Jad Abumrad
Look Inside The Immortal Life of Henrietta LacksClick on thumbnails for larger images
Henrietta and David Lacks, circa 1945. Elsie Lacks, Henrietta’s older daughter, about five years before she was committed to Crownsville State Hospital, with a diagnosis of “idiocy.” Deborah Lacks at about age four. The home-house where Henrietta was raised, a four-room log cabin in Clover, Virginia, that once served as slave quarters. (1999) Main Street in downtown Clover, Virginia, where Henrietta was raised, circa 1930s.
Margaret Gey and Minnie, a lab technician, in the Gey lab at Hopkins, circa 1951. Deborah with her children, LaTonya and Alfred, and her second husband, James Pullum, in the mid-1980s. In 2001, Deborah developed a severe case of hives after learning upsetting new information about her mother and sister. Deborah and her cousin Gary Lacks standing in front of drying tobacco, 2001. The Lacks family in 2009.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Science journalist Skloot makes a remarkable debut with this multilayered story about faith, science, journalism, and grace. It is also a tale of medical wonders and medical arrogance, racism, poverty and the bond that grows, sometimes painfully, between two very different women—Skloot and Deborah Lacks—sharing an obsession to learn about Deborah's mother, Henrietta, and her magical, immortal cells. Henrietta Lacks was a 31-year-old black mother of five in Baltimore when she died of cervical cancer in 1951. Without her knowledge, doctors treating her at Johns Hopkins took tissue samples from her cervix for research. They spawned the first viable, indeed miraculously productive, cell line—known as HeLa. These cells have aided in medical discoveries from the polio vaccine to AIDS treatments. What Skloot so poignantly portrays is the devastating impact Henrietta's death and the eventual importance of her cells had on her husband and children. Skloot's portraits of Deborah, her father and brothers are so vibrant and immediate they recall Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's Random Family. Writing in plain, clear prose, Skloot avoids melodrama and makes no judgments. Letting people and events speak for themselves, Skloot tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society's most vulnerable people. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
In simple, straightforward prose, Skloot brings to life the woman unknowingly behind some of the 20th century's greatest medical advancements. In the process, she exposes the minefield of scientific, legal, and philosophical questions raised by Lacks's unwitting legacy. Skloot, who deftly weaves together the disparate threads of biography, science, and social history, provides a remarkably evenhanded assessment of the shadier dealings of the biomedical industry despite her obvious affection and sympathy for the Lacks family. Scientifically challenged readers will rejoice in Skloot's ability to explain complex technical processes in layperson's terms. Hailed by the New York Times as "the book Ms. Skloot was born to write," The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks "is an important book, one that will linger--like Henrietta's cells--long after you've turned the last page" (Chicago Sun-Times).
Most helpful customer reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Educational, entertaining, and an overall great read
By Bccaly
I ordered this book to read for one of my Ethics classes. I was worried about so much assigned reading to complete in one week, but it turned out to be a book that you just can't put down.
It still amazes me that this is a woman's real life story, the story of her family, and how they have impacted science and anyone who works or benefits from the use of cellular research. That means just about every single person is connected to Henrietta in one way or another.
This was a great book that I'm so glad I read. I learned a lot and it kept me entertained and fascinated for days. It will really change your perspective and make you appreciate this woman's contribution to our scientific and health fields.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
My Immortal Gratitude to Henrietta Lacks
By Cassandra Johnson
I was so moved by this book. Henrietta's story, the agonizing decisions and pains Henrietta was forced to endure, the incredible medical advancements she enabled, the risks Henrietta's family took to help Ms. Skloot to tell the story, the author's careful consideration for Henrietta's family--I cannot overstate what an impact all of this made on me. I am not medical professional--just a mom of and advocate for medically fragile kiddos--but in my 40 years of life I had never heard of Henrietta Lacks. A friend rec'd this book to me last month, and once I started reading I couldn't stop. I applaud Ms. Skloot for her compassion for the Lacks family and her determination to share their story as completely as possible. They are an imperfect but beautiful family, and I am grateful to have gotten to "know" them through this book.
This is also a fascinating snapshot of the state of ethics and understandable lack of informed consent in our country in 1951. The author does a very good job of explaining how and why Drs. Gey & Jones made the decisions they made when it came to their patient, Henrietta, while also illustrating the ethical implications of their decisions, how much we've learned since then, and exactly why we've changed our standards and practices to be fair and transparent to patients, their families, and to the public. Chapter 13 "The HeLa Factory" resonated with me in particular--so much logic, reason, common sense, and public health operations/obligations everywhere, but the dehumanization of Henrietta was painful to watch.
I am excited to report that my real life doctors know of HeLa! I was so thrilled when they acknowledged they knew what I was talking about! But they usually do not know WHO I am talking about. I find Henrietta's story, as told by Ms. Skloot and Deborah, so overwhelming, tragic, and exciting that I talk to all of our doctors about her! They all seem to know HeLa (!!!), but nobody seems to know Henrietta. I am always excited to share what I know of her story and am so thankful this book was written. Thank you to Ms. Skloot and the Lacks family for persevering in this endeavor. We all already benefit from Henrietta's contribution, unknowingly, but now we can benefit from the lessons learned from the stories of her and her family, and have the correct names and faces in mind when we feel gratitude for even the littlest advancements in medicine. If I could give all of you hugs right now, I sure would.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
No matter how hard you try to protect your own body someone out there can take bit and pieces of it with out your consent.
By Florence M. Perry
I am not a lover of nonfiction books but this one kept me coming back to see if the Lacks family would ever be told what was going on with Henrietta's cells.
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