Review of 'The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks' on 'Goodreads'
1 star
this book is apparently inaccurate
618 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 2011 by Large Print Press/Gale Cengage Learning.
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.
this book is apparently inaccurate
This is a really great book to listen to. It was narrated well.
The content was great - a very neat combination of personal stories and the very important history of medical science in the US and the racism of it. I highly recommend this book!
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.
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.