Henrietta Lacks Book Review

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Book Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot explores the life of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman who was born in 1920, into a family of impoverished tobacco farmers in Virginia. She died in 1951 at the age of 31 of cervical cancer. Her cells, simply known as HeLa, did not. This unique immortality changed the course of medical history in positive and negative ways. Henrietta’s cells have been widely used in medical research ever since. The HeLa cell line has been responsible for the polio vaccine, gene mapping and breakthrough cancer research. However, ethical questions about the multi-million-dollar industry that was developed from its distribution cannot be ignored, neither the way in which her cells were collected.
When Henrietta Lacks went to John Hopkins Hospital, a surgeon by the name of George Gey took small samples of her cervical tissue for culture research. Gey and his assistant Margaret quickly noticed the cells replicated within twenty-four hours. At the time this was medical breakthrough. Scientists had been struggling to keep cells alive in culture for research and vaccine …show more content…
Her story arose not only controversy, but led to an understanding of how information is obtained and who can gain such access. Furthermore, Mrs. Lack’s life and death served as a catapult for policies that are currently influencing science, build trust, and protect research participants. The medical communities have taken numerous steps to protect the people in clinical research, however it is still in its infancy. Such protection fully depends on how we are aware of the decisions we make when handling life, regardless of its form. We are ethically obliged to ensure the reliability of the research and promote the safety of all of those
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