Book Reveiw
Letters To A Young Scientist
The Imortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
By Rebbeca Skloot
When something is taken from you without permission you have been robbed. Should the same concept apply to something more personal than our passwords to our bank accounts- our cells? This question is embedded into Rebecca Skloot's book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot’s book ,a regular on the required reading lists of many colleges, explores so many themes it would take years to discuss them in full. It is rich in content and meaning and, has caused almost a turf war between hundreds of different people fighting about their views.
The book is made intriguing by the way it brings science down to earth. The most interesting parts are not about the cells themselves, but how they changed the lives of the characters. Its often hard to see the effects of science in our lives but the book shows the drastic effects of science on the lives of others.
HeLa cells are the “immortalized” cancer cells of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta was an African American living in Baltimore in the first half of the twentieth century. She went for treatment of her cancer at John Hopkins hospital. Her cancer was so bad it was incurable. After months of radiation Henrietta Lacks died, but shortly before her death George Gey a researcher took her cells without her permission. He put the cancer cells in a culture medium and they kept growing and expanding, in effect becoming immortal. They are still growing and expanding today, and are bought and sold for research purposes
Skloot writes about the Lacks family, and chronicles the lives of Henrietta’s children and husband. Although many of Henrietta’s cells have been profited off of the some of the Lacks family lives in poverty, and at points go without health insurance. Their anger towards science is understandable and it has fueled the anger of others.
The sadness and importance of the story is why you should read it, and although it casts a dark shadow on medicine. I can understand the Lacks’ reactions and believe it is important to discuss them the many angles of
this story. In 1950 stealing
someone’s cells was not
illegal but today the courts
might decide differently.
By Peter Smith