The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot

This is the story of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells changed course  of medical science forever. The cells named HeLa (first two letters of Henrietta Lacks) was taken without her permission and used for cancer research. The important thing was that the  researchers never revealed from whom they took these cells.  Most importantly Henrietta Lacks was a black Afro-American woman. There goes the reason.

Rebecca Skloot did marvelous job by writing this book without leaning to any side and brings the truth behind the HeLa. She did ten years research and worked hand in hand with Henrietta Lacks daughter Deborah , who was main source of information from Lacks.Deborah undergone innumerable misery because of HeLa.The reporters and journalist violated the Lacks family's privacy by reporting and publishing the medical records as well as some fraud news. Deborah was a baby when her mother died. She wanted to know more about her mother but no one told anything about her specially about how she died. She along with the author started visiting all the places where they found many things about Henrietta Lacks, at the same time it also caused so much mental problem to Deborah.

None of the scientist or doctors bothered to explain the Lackses about HeLa and what they were doing with it. After the disastrous findings by one of the scientist that many cell cultures thought to be from other tissue types including breast cancer were in fact HeLa cells and he also noted that  HeLa cells could float on dust particles in the air and travel on unwashed hands and contaminate other cultures. These discoveries let some of the scientists to track down the Henrietta Lacks children and they asked the family to undergo a test for cancer.The family did not understand what was going but that was the starting.

God, I never thought I'd see my mother under a microscope -- I never dreamed this day would ever come - Deborah

Now back to Henrietta Lacks,through out the book everyone speaks high of Henrietta Lacks, woman of high hospitality.She had undergone radium therapy but nothing helped her to alleviate pain,eventually she died. Her children were taken care of by another lady who treated them very badly specially the youngest one. Skloot with the help of various family members brings the life of Henrietta Lacks alive.

Like I'm always telling my brothers, if you gonna go into history, you can't do it with a hate attitude. You got to remember, times was different - Deborah

The racial politics of medicine was told  as it happened . It was very unfortunate that till recently the Lackses did not know anything about HeLa.  The doctors did not adhered to their oath as it was not required by the  law to get patient consent about their cell research. To summarize i borrowed these words from Rebecca Skloot website :

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. It’s a story 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’re made of.

I personally suggest everyone to read this book even if you don't like tissue culture , read it for the way the author narrates the history..! We all should know this history...

Click here to check Henrietta Lacks foundation 

Smithsonian article on Henrietta Lacks