The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This has become a book I recommend on a regular basis!

An important piece of investigative journalism led to this book that intersects topics such as race, medical ethics, gynaecology, research ethics, genetics, poverty, corporate greed, urban development and decay….

But at its heart it’s also a fascinating portrayal of people, of a family in crisis, of a family in mourning for a mother and who struggle as they get caught up in a much larger narrative. In some way the more “dry” genetics stuff gets pushed aside, at least for me, when juxtaposed with how a family copes with grief.

Henrietta Lacks, a black woman, had her cancer cells taken from her and they became the basis of a lot of modern cell and genetic studies due to their ability to grow in a lab. Dubbed HeLa cells, they were the first of their kind. Their contribution to science cannot be overstated, but none of this was done with her or the family’s informed consent. Medical practices back then were highly questionable in this arena to say the least. The infamous Tuskegee syphilitic experiment is an example. (Tuskegee actually comes up in a surprising way in the book).

The book is good at centring the Lacks family, especially Deborah, Henrietta’s daughter. Her burgeoning friendship with the writer is documented and we get to see how the story and book develops through it. There are loads of interesting characters we meet on the way and you get “inside” the developing story.

We get the story of Henrietta and her origins. Henrietta gets to live again, speak again, and not just as cells. It’s important to bring back the voice to these cells that many have used without a thought to her.

I liked the coverage of historic attitudes to cell cultures as well as the opening up of conversations of where we are today when it comes to research, patient consent, genetical research and ethics. Let’s just say there’s still things to be worked out…

So many layers and so much covered! I appreciate the effort of explaining the science behind cell cultures, which is quite complicated. The book is good at giving the sense of a developing story.