You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has been on my TBR list for a while. There was A LOT to this book and it has some good points and some drawbacks. If you want to feel really angry, make sure you read to the end of the Afterword!
It was a moving story when it talked about the family and all that they had been through before, during, and after Henrietta's illness and death. I found the information about how her cells were maintained and used on research to be fascinating.
The parts that dealt with the circumstances surrounding how her cells came to be "immortal" and much of the scientific information to be overkill for the scope and purpose of this book. I do enjoy a good science lesson, but this was too much and I would have really enjoyed focusing more on the family.
I was enraged at the current (ish - from 2009) state of affairs with informed consent re: your own personal tissue samples and what may happen to them. As soon as you have anything removed from your body, you no longer have any rights to it and it can be used without your knowledge or consent for whatever purposes researchers and scientists want. It can be bought or sold for however much money and you have no right to compensation. Personally I am not ok with that. I feel like I own my DNA and the idea of it being used for research (even genetic research) rubs me the wrong way. Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk.
It was a moving story when it talked about the family and all that they had been through before, during, and after Henrietta's illness and death. I found the information about how her cells were maintained and used on research to be fascinating.
The parts that dealt with the circumstances surrounding how her cells came to be "immortal" and much of the scientific information to be overkill for the scope and purpose of this book. I do enjoy a good science lesson, but this was too much and I would have really enjoyed focusing more on the family.
I was enraged at the current (ish - from 2009) state of affairs with informed consent re: your own personal tissue samples and what may happen to them. As soon as you have anything removed from your body, you no longer have any rights to it and it can be used without your knowledge or consent for whatever purposes researchers and scientists want. It can be bought or sold for however much money and you have no right to compensation. Personally I am not ok with that. I feel like I own my DNA and the idea of it being used for research (even genetic research) rubs me the wrong way. Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk.
Read this long ago and don’t remember how it was as a book, but a crucial story to know about!
Good book for anyone in science, especially professionals/paraprofessionals in the medical fields. Make sure to read to the Epilogue. Good philosophical synopsis there.
Very interesting subject matter, but also overly verbose and in need of better editing. Still, I wish I could give it 3.5 stars...
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
I will never forget this book as long as I live. It reads like a dystopian fiction novel in so many ways, but knowing that all of it is true had me gasping, tearing up, & getting angry, sometimes all at the same time.
In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the story uncovers how cells taken from Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman who died of cancer in 1951, became the first immortal human cell line, known as HeLa, revolutionizing medical research. Skloot intertwines the scientific significance of HeLa cells with the personal story of Henrietta and her family, who were largely unaware of the cells’ use for decades. The book explores ethical issues in medical research, race, consent, and the human impact behind scientific breakthroughs.
Again, how did I not learn this in years of biology classes?!!