A Month of Literary Gratitude, Day 6 - The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

Sunday, November 6, 2016

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is a book I found fascinating, appalling, and enlightening.


This is the story of a poor, black woman who died in the early 1950s of cancer. Her cancer cells - taken with out her knowledge in 1951 - became the source material for a cell line known as "HeLa," which has been used for countless research purposes including developing the polio vaccine, cloning, and gene mapping. Millions of dollars have been made from this cell culture, but she and her family were never paid for this contribution to science, and her descendants continue to live in poverty.

This book touches on race and medicine, the "ownership" of biologicals, medical ethics and more. This nation's long history of medical experimentation on unsuspecting African Americans is well documented (if not well known in white communities), and I was appalled and fascinated by the depth and breadth of this behavior.

I think one of the reasons this book touched me so much is it personified the circumstances by which a poorly educated, marginalized population can be taken advantage of, used, and cheated by those who believe their positions of power justify their shitty behavior towards those they consider "less than." That aspect of this story made me ill.

It also made me realize that medical ethicists have a long way to go when it comes to managing the moral implications of modern medicine.

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