The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks

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Rebecca Skloot: The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks (2011, Large Print Press/Gale Cengage Learning)

618 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 2011 by Large Print Press/Gale Cengage Learning.

ISBN:
978-1-59413-432-6
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OCLC Number:
666220228

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3 stars (4 reviews)

Documents the story of how scientists took cells from an unsuspecting descendant of freed slaves and created a human cell line that has been kept alive indefinitely, enabling discoveries in such areas as cancer research, in vitro fertilization, and gene mapping.

18 editions

Review of 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Of course it's heartbreaking that Henrietta Lacks's descendants must do without medical insurance while Henrietta's cells provide financial benefits to pharmaceutical companies. Rebecca Skloot concludes the book with a really good (if scholarly) analysis of the issues regarding tissue "donation" and medical research.

The story of the Lacks family was compelling; the historical record of the scientists and medical personnel was rather dry. In the end, I felt like there were too many competing storylines in this book to really make me feel involved with all of them.

Review of 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Of course it's heartbreaking that Henrietta Lacks's descendants must do without medical insurance while Henrietta's cells provide financial benefits to pharmaceutical companies. Rebecca Skloot concludes the book with a really good (if scholarly) analysis of the issues regarding tissue "donation" and medical research.

The story of the Lacks family was compelling; the historical record of the scientists and medical personnel was rather dry. In the end, I felt like there were too many competing storylines in this book to really make me feel involved with all of them.

Subjects

  • Cancer
  • Cell culture
  • Research
  • Patients
  • Health
  • HeLa cells
  • African American women
  • Medical ethics
  • Human experimentation in medicine
  • Biography
  • History

Places

  • United States
  • Virginia