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Loading... The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (edition 2010)by Rebecca Skloot (Author)
Work InformationThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
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I was really moved by this story. I don't read much nonfiction, but am very glad I made time for this one. It's filled with important information about Henrietta, the cells that have done so much for science, and the wreckage and pain that is often left behind when a loved one is lost, particularly in difficult circumstances. I learned so much, but also found myself very involved in the Lacks family's struggle. It's sad, touching, and finally hopeful. ( ) Good science writing. This book raises lots of questions about medical research and profits, race, poverty, education and ethical issues involving tissue and cell ownership. The beginning of the book was a lot more interesting to me than the end. Part one concentrates more on Henrietta's cancer and diagnosis whereas the end of the book involves the author and Henrietta's family. The author is persistent and fearless in her pursuit of information for the book. Unfortunately the way the family was described made them appear unsympathetic or as one reviewer said "insufferable." I do wish the author had stressed right from the start that the HeLa cells "taken without her knowledge" were cancer cells. The Drs. did take healthy tissue too but those cells did not survive. I really like the quote the author used by Elie Wiesel. "We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph." I read this during my first year of my PhD program and again just in the last few days. When I first read it, I was saddened by what pain Lacks experienced. And also by Deborah Lacks' grief and subsequent health challenges she and her family faced. Now that I am a scientific program officer, I am further horrified by the lack of informed consent that took place. And how people today think regulation is unnecessary and hinders research and development. An IRB is necessary. I read this during my first year of my PhD program and again just in the last few days. When I first read it, I was saddened by what pain Lacks experienced. And also by Deborah Lacks' grief and subsequent health challenges she and her family faced. Now that I am a scientific program officer, I am further horrified by the lack of informed consent that took place. And how people today think regulation is unnecessary and hinders research and development. An IRB is necessary.
Skloot narrates the science lucidly, tracks the racial politics of medicine thoughtfully and tells the Lacks family’s often painful history with grace. She also confronts the spookiness of the cells themselves, intrepidly crossing into the spiritual plane on which the family has come to understand their mother’s continued presence in the world. Science writing is often just about “the facts.” Skloot’s book, her first, is far deeper, braver and more wonderful. I put down Rebecca Skloot’s first book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” more than once. Ten times, probably. Once to poke the fire. Once to silence a pinging BlackBerry. And eight times to chase my wife and assorted visitors around the house, to tell them I was holding one of the most graceful and moving nonfiction books I’ve read in a very long time. Writing with a novelist's artistry, a biologist's expertise, and the zeal of an investigative reporter, Skloot tells a truly astonishing story of racism and poverty, science and conscience, spirituality and family, all driven by a galvanizing inquiry into the sanctity of the body and the very nature of the life force. Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer in a “colored” hospital ward in Baltimore in 1951. She would have gone forever unnoticed by the outside world if not for the dime-sized slice of her tumor sent to a lab for research eight months earlier. ... Skloot, a science writer, has been fascinated with Lacks since she first took a biology class at age 16. As she went on to earn a degree in the subject, she yearned to know more about the woman, anonymous for years, who was responsible for those ubiquitous cells.... Skloot tells a rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society's most vulnerable people. Has as a reference guide/companionAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)616.02774092Technology Medicine and health Diseases Pathology; Diseases; Treatment First aid; Emergency; Euthanasia Stem cellsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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