HeLa cells. Have you heard of them? I'm a bit sheepish to say that I hadn't - it's been decades since I took a biology class and although I'd heard snippets about a black woman whose cells had been stolen, I was woefully ignorant about her story. I certainly didn't know her name.
But I do now.
It was Henrietta. She had cancer and doctors took samples of her cells without permission. And those cells have changed modern medicine. What those cells and their infamy has also changed? The lives of Henrietta's family, but not for the better, certainly not in the way one would hope.
The story of Henrietta's cells and the story of her family are intertwined in this engaging non-fiction story that reads like a novel as the author, Rebecca Skloot, makes a place for herself among Henrietta's descendants. Woven within this narrative is so much about bioethics and the patenting of ideas and human tissues, as well as the dismal history and current state of medical care for the economically impoverished (most especially people of color). I made me uncomfortable with shame, to learn about the choices that both doctors and researchers made, whatever their intentions. It made me feel indignation and sorrow. But I also learned a lot - and a book that can do all that and still keep my attention? That's a good book.
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