The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (Crown, 2010)
This debut book by a young, accomplished science writer tells the story of the infamous HeLa cell, which came from the ovarian cancer mass of a poor, young black woman who accessed John Hopkins University Hospital for medical care in the early 1950’s. Stunning the world of science, Henrietta Lacks’ cells not only continued to live after her death, but they reproduced billions upon billions of times to create a backbone to science (particularly disease) research. While offering Henrietta’s life story, this book also tells the story of her family – especially of her devoted daughter, Deborah -- who never knew about their mother’s magnificent cells; therein the author touches upon the wider issues involving race, science, ethics and class (9/10).
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