kerry reviewed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor …
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.