Book Recommendation # 1: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
A creative non-fiction book about the immortal cell line "HeLa" and her unwitting donor, Henrietta Lacks.
Hello there,
This week’s book recommendation is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 Stars
Henrietta Lacks was the unwitting donor of HeLa, an immortal cell line that helped make the polio vaccine and furthered the study of virology, genetics, and cancer treatments. We owe a lot of the medications we take today because of HeLa. Yet, nobody knew about Henrietta Lacks or where HeLa came from for several years, even her own family. The HeLa cell line is called "immortal" because of its unique ability to grow and divide in the laboratory continuously. It is used extensively for research until today, 70 years after it was first extracted from Heinretta.
Although this book is a bit scientific, it is easy to read. I came to know this genre as creative non-fiction. It explores the moral ethics in science and asks the question, "who really owns the stuff in our bodies? Dead or alive". Each chapter alternates with how the author found Heinretta's family from HeLa's progress in science. There's a speech in the book by the gynecologist that treated Heinretta, which perfectly summarizes this book.
As Charles Dickens said at the beginning of [A] Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." But it was the best of times for science in that this very peculiar tumor gave rise to the
HeLa cell line….. For Mrs. Lacks and the family she left behind, it was the worst of times. Scientific progress and indeed progress of all kinds is often made at great cost, such as the sacrifice made by Henrietta Lacks.
I'm glad my BF picked this book, I'm glad I read it, and I'm glad I got to know Henrietta. I hope you enjoy reading Henrietta Lacks as much as I did.
Happy Reading!