Rebecca Skloot perfectly frames how a seemingly inconsequential decision made by a doctor studying cells has changed the world of science today.
In 1951 Henrietta Lacks has samples taken, during surgery, from her cervical cancer-- to the best of anyone's knowledge at the time they were destined to die (like the many cell samples collected before them) but something strange happened and Henrietta's cells began to grow, and grow. Indeed, they became immortal.
Millions of HeLa cells have been bought and sold across the world to further research in areas from in vitro fertilisation to the atom bomb's side effects. The simple act of sampling Henrietta's cervical cancer cells has benefited millions but enriched only a small few.
Yet, for a very long time, nobody told Henrietta's family that a part of their mother lived on in science labs across the world and nobody told them someone else was making a lot of money from the sale of her cells.
The issue the book raises -- Is is ethically o.k to take a patient's tissues without consent and subsequently use them for scientific and medical research (which may involve monetary gain)?
Legally: tissue removed in the course of medical treatment or testing no longer belongs to the patient. But legality often misses the nuances of ethics.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is easy to follow ( I had it done in less than two days) and after opening my eyes to the world of cells and the discoveries made in the last fifty years, (many because of HeLa), leaves me with more questions than answers.
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