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A review by kellyhager
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: The Young Reader's Edition by Gregory Mone, Rebecca Skloot
4.0
I feel like the last person who hasn't read this book. I think at least five different people have recommended it to me (from coworkers to my aunt) and if it hadn't ultimately been a book club pick, I'm not sure I would have read it. I didn't love it the way everyone else seems to, but it's a great book and I'm glad I read it. Even if it was under protest.
In case you also haven't read it, Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman living in Baltimore in the early 1950s. She wasn't very well educated and people of that time (especially poor people) tended to do whatever the doctors wanted without questioning or even trying to make sure they understood what was going on. She had cervical cancer and doctors took samples of that cancer and her cells without asking. Henrietta later died, but the cancer cells never did. Ever since they were taken, they've kept growing and dividing. Her cells helped cure polio and have been studied by scientists all over the world.
That's all well and good, except her children and grandchildren haven't received any compensation. Biomedical companies have gotten rich but her family can't even really afford to go to the doctor. And since most of them aren't very well-educated either, they're not entirely sure exactly what some of this even means. Her daughter (who was only a toddler when Henrietta died) was convinced that her mom was cloned and there are a lot of Henriettas walking around someplace.
I don't understand why (a) they weren't compensated or (b) at the very least, someone couldn't sit down with them and explain the science stuff behind the cell harvesting. (Before Rebecca Skloot, I mean.)
This is an incredibly good book, but it ultimately left me cold. I didn't really care about the science aspect (although I did understand it all, which I was worried about---my brain doesn't really lend itself well to science and math) but I loved the parts about her family.
In case you also haven't read it, Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman living in Baltimore in the early 1950s. She wasn't very well educated and people of that time (especially poor people) tended to do whatever the doctors wanted without questioning or even trying to make sure they understood what was going on. She had cervical cancer and doctors took samples of that cancer and her cells without asking. Henrietta later died, but the cancer cells never did. Ever since they were taken, they've kept growing and dividing. Her cells helped cure polio and have been studied by scientists all over the world.
That's all well and good, except her children and grandchildren haven't received any compensation. Biomedical companies have gotten rich but her family can't even really afford to go to the doctor. And since most of them aren't very well-educated either, they're not entirely sure exactly what some of this even means. Her daughter (who was only a toddler when Henrietta died) was convinced that her mom was cloned and there are a lot of Henriettas walking around someplace.
I don't understand why (a) they weren't compensated or (b) at the very least, someone couldn't sit down with them and explain the science stuff behind the cell harvesting. (Before Rebecca Skloot, I mean.)
This is an incredibly good book, but it ultimately left me cold. I didn't really care about the science aspect (although I did understand it all, which I was worried about---my brain doesn't really lend itself well to science and math) but I loved the parts about her family.