A review by daumari
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

5.0

I'm three years behind but the hype was well deserved. Anyone who's sat through an introductory biology course has likely heard of the HeLa immortal cell line, used in numerous piles of research because tests can be conducted on cell culture instead of people to develop products. What's not as widely known (or wasn't) was that these cells were taking from Henrietta's tumor without her or her family's consent, developed into a research tool and eventually a commodity- a fact the family wasn't aware of until about 20 years later. Skloot weaves together the history of the HeLa cell line, the story of the Lacks family, and her ten year journey trying to piece together details about the woman behind the cells into a very readable narrative (it's been a while since I've had a book I absolutely could not put down). The afterward is a very succinct description of the state of bioethics re: tissue donation, and definitely a topic everyone should get to know.