The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was rated as one of the best nonfiction books of 2010, so I thought I’d pick it up.
It took me into a fascinating world I knew very little of – human cell research. Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge or consent before her death at age 30. She left behind a husband and five children. Her cells have since been instrumental in changing the medical world. Her family had no knowledge of what had happened until 20 years later.
This book explores the story of the cells, the ethics behind such research, and the personal stories of Henrietta and her family members. It reads like a novel – poignant, interesting, sad, fascinating, and spell-binding.
It was worth my time.
