Book Review On The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

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Book review: ‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ (by Rebecca Skloot)
A. Duckers
I6056150
AR&V II
Maastricht University
28-05-2014
Introduction
‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ is an interesting book for a broad audience. It combines scientific history with the beautiful and tragic story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. Because of its wide range, it would be best to publish this review in a magazine or newspaper that is read by a broad, higher educated audience, since they would be most interested in the story of Henrietta. Dutch examples of magazines in which a book review like this one could be published are Elsevier or Quest. International examples would be the New York Times or the Sunday Times.
Core argument
‘The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks’ is about a black woman who died in 1951. Her cancerous cervix cells, taken without her knowledge by a doctor at John Hopkins Hospital, were the first ‘immortal cells’, meaning they could be cultured in a lab. Her cell line, named HeLa (after Henrietta Lacks), then became one of the most important tools in medicine. However, this book not only focusses on the scientific story of HeLa cells, but also on the story of the woman behind the cells. It consists of three storylines, which will all be described below.
Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta was born into a poor, black family. Her father was a tobacco famer and Henrietta never really knew her mother, since she was four years old when her mother died. After her mother’s death, Henrietta spent her childhood living with her grandfather in Clover, Virginia, in what they called the ‘home-house’. When Henrietta was fourteen, her first son Lawrence was born. Four years later, his sister Elsie followed. Elsie was ‘s...

... middle of paper ...

...uremberg Code was set up in 1947 and provided researchers with ten points to make sure their experiments were ethically accepted. However, the Nuremberg Code was a guideline and it was not legally binding. Later it became obligated for researchers to have a consent form signed, but doctors are still allowed to take tissue samples, for example during a surgery, without the patient specifically consenting them to do so.
Conclusion
Before reading this book, I had never heard of Henrietta Lacks or HeLa. I found her story very interesting. Personally, I was unaware that discrimination was still such a big issue in the 1950s and that informed consent did not yet exist in this time period. The book is very well written and also understandable for people who don’t have a background in science. The story of Henrietta is fascinating and I would recommend anyone to read it.

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