The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Henrietta Lacks was a poor black women who died in the 1950s from cancer. Her cells were harvested (a routine procedure for almost every medical treatment even today - do you ever read the consent forms that you sign?) and are still alive today. The HeLa cells are still being utilized for scientific research around the world and are the basis for many medical advances. Skloot does a great job of explaining the science behind all of this so that the average person can understand it.

The other side of the story is about Henrietta's family, a real study in how poverty impacts every aspect of someone's life - health, education, and ability to climb out of that situation. I found the family story fascinating from a sociological perspective especially since I worked with people in similar situations in the GED program in Baton Rouge.

My book club had a great discussion about medical ethics (a retired pediatrician joined us for the meeting to give us his perspective). Some of the members felt that Skloot inserted herself into the story too much but after reading about her background (her own father was involved in medical trials when he was dying of cancer) I feel like her involvement was appropriate.

Skloot raises important questions about medical ethics, disclosure of personal information, who owns the cells that are harvested for research and who should profit from that research. As Henrietta's son says, why can't her family even afford health insurance when others are making billions from her cells? Very thought provoking as well as a good read!