A review by elerireads
The Immortal Life of Henritta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

4.5

Excellent. A wonderful exploration of the enormous role played by the cells of one woman in medical research, but also the real lives of Henrietta and her family, and the ways in which they were (emotionally, legally) and were not (financially) affected by the widespread use of her cells. There's an interesting scientific story here that I enjoyed learning about, but really the story of Henrietta Lacks's cells is a history of medical ethics over the 60 years after her death, especially the issues of informed consent to medical research and ownership of human tissue. It touches on exploitation of prisoners, black people and the poor, but the most appalling story was what happened to Elsie Lacks - Henrietta's daughter - which didn't actually involve HeLa cells but if I were writing the book I'd have found it hard to stay on topic knowing about that. Deserves a book in its own right, but I'm sure they must have been written. At the heart of it though, was the insane injustice that Henrietta Lacks contributed so much to medical progress but her own family couldn't afford healthcare. Obviously healthcare in the US is batshit so I'd be interested to know how the UK compares on some of the ethics, especially relating to big pharma.

This was very well written. The scientific, human and ethical strands are all carefully woven together to craft one really engaging story. I listened to it as an audiobook and for the second half I was lying in the dark with a horrible migraine and it succeeded in distracting me, so job well done I'm very grateful.