The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Author: Rebecca Skloot List Price: $26.00 Our Price: $14.30 You Save: $11.70 (45%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Hardcover 384 pages Release Date: 02 February 2010 Publisher: Crown ISBN: 1400052173 Rating:   Sales Rank: 44 | | Look for similar books by subject: | | Customers who bought this item also bought:
| | Customer Reviews: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (08 September 2010)This amazing book of non-fiction by Rebecca Skloot reads like a great novel. And it seems like a science fiction tale. A poor uneducated 31 year old mother of five dies of an extremely aggressive cervical cancer in the charity ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951. Most of her family does not even know that she is being treated for cancer. During one operation, a section of tissue is given to another doctor in the hospital to culture. When the cells began to grow and multiply, an industry is born. To add to the drama, the family of Henrietta Lacks has no idea that a tissue sample has been taken from her. Henrietta's cells are used to develop the polio vaccine; to investigate cancer; to develop in vitro fertilization and many other medical advances. Not only was her family not informed of the multi-million dollar industry that developed around the growth and sale of Henrietta's cells, they themselves were uneducated, poor, and lacked access to adequate medical care. Her children grew up without their mother. The youngest two have no memory of her. One of her daughters died alone at the age of fifteen in a state institution. When her family learned of the culturing and sale of Henrietta's cells, they lacked the knowledge to even understand what a cell was. Skloot has done years of research to write this book, and yet it reads like a drama. She doesn't sensationalize anything and, most importantly, treats the family with the respect they deserve. Skloot discusses the legalities of tissue ownership rights and mentions a number of other cases where individuals have tried to claim the rights to their own tissue. There is a tremendous of information in this book, and yet the real person that was Henrietta shines through. This book is a must read. Putting a Face on HeLa (06 September 2010)Despite my years of studying and teaching math and science, I am always caught off guard when I discover I missed an important story. Granted, my expertise is in physics and math. Still, after reading about Henrietta Lacks, I am surprised at how such a discovery could have eluded my attention for so long. Fortunately, Rebecca Skloot's book has rectified that omission. How many advances in medicine over the course of the last half century have depended upon the use of cultured cells? Their use in drug trials, radiation tests, fundamental cell research (like the discoveries of chromosomes and DNA), and more, is crucial to the advancement of our understanding. Yet it was not that long ago that many scientists despaired of ever finding human cells that would survive being cultured. That all changed in 1951 when a tissue sample was taken from a tumor on the cervix of Henrietta Lacks, and the HeLa cell line was born. It seems like a story that wouldn't necessarily take an entire book to tell; however, Ms. Lacks story is one of murky medical ethics with which we still struggle. Ill during a time when medical experimentation was often done on people without their understanding or consent, this problem was particularly bad in the African-American community--think of the Tuskegee syphilis study. And though there seems to be no evidence that the doctors at Johns Hopkins didn't do everything possible at the time to save Ms. Lacks from her particularly virulent cancer (a quality that made those cells able to survive in culture), it is also true that the sample was taken without informed consent and many millions of dollars have been made selling her cells while her descendents have never seen a dime and struggle in poverty. It begs the question that we still haven't sufficiently answered: who has the rights over your body tissues once they leave your body? But do not be fooled: this is not a book of dry history and medical ethics. It is a dynamic story of people and science. We learn about Ms. Lacks and her descendents; in particular, her daughter, Deborah, who wants so much to know the mother she lost and see her mother recognized for what she contributed to science. We meet the scientists who worked so hard to come up with cultured cells in the first half of the 20th century. And we get to know the author, Ms. Skloot, who herself becomes a part of the story she is telling. What we end up with is a very readable account that puts a face on the scientific shorthand. HeLa is Henrietta Lacks. Overwhelmed by the magnitude of scientific advance these days, it is easy to forget the ethical murkiness that brought about many of these triumphs and the people who were crucial to that success, test subjects and patients put aside and forgotten. Ms. Skloot has done us a great service in her long pursuit of this story. Wow... (05 September 2010)This is an amazing book. I am so happy that I've read it. This is a book that anyone struggling with chronic illness should read. I read through the first half of the bok within a day, tehn I had to set it down for a few days so I could digest everything that I had just read. Great book. Humanizing medical research (04 September 2010)Author writes lucidly and brings to life Henrietta Lacks, the source of HeLa cells. Rebecca Skloot's first book is a winner. I couldn't put it down. She explains the science of tissue culture and weaves into it the story of a black family and their trials and the injustices they suffered. wonderfully addictive and spellbinding (03 September 2010)from the first page I was hooked and stayed up too late many a night because I didn't want to put it down. | |
