The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

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Wow, I really enjoyed this book and have raced through it. Something really different, well written and highly interesting. it's a mix of social history, poverty, race, ethics, biology and an amazing history of cell research. The cancerous cells of this woman,who died in Maryland in 1951, have become the standard for so much research over the world.  Without Henrietta's cells there would be no modern vaccines. (polio would still be killing people)  no modern chemotherapy drugs, and no world standard for human cell research. Her cells replicated perfectly and never died. They were like a magic porridge pot for cell researchers in the 1950s. her cells were called Hela and are still used prolifically all over the world.  

So far so good, but Henrietta's family never found about their Mother's cells until 20 years later when a variety of scientists, con-men and TV reporters turned up at their door.  The scientists wanted more cells from close relatives to do more research into genomes and the reporters of course wanted a story.

Anyway things went badly for the extended Lacks family.  They were angry that drug companies had made money from their mother without their knowledge and they were highly ignorant about what cells were. Nobody sat down with the family and explained what their mother had done for science and that there were no clones of Henrietta wandering around. 

The Lacks family are extremely poor and ill educated. A family with their roots in tobacco farming.The kids all left school before 14 and were never good in school anyway because of their congenital deafness never being diagnosed. ( a symptom of Henrietta marrying her cousin.) The grinding poverty of their lives is extreme and in complete contrast to the other strand of the story about cell research in labs all over the world by scientists.

Anyway, in the late 90s the author of this book managed to get the trust of the family and through years of research and persistence this book was written.  In the end it's a tribute to Henrietta and how out of her hard life something good appeared. ( her cervical cancer cells were so aggressive due to HPV and constant syphillis infections from her playboy husband.) Infact the HPV vaccine is only here because of Henrietta's cells.

As for the ethics of this book this has been complicated for me.  The story is a product of the American health system,the American education system, grinding poverty and race. The Lacks family are rightly angry that they are too poor to have health care and benefit from the the products which their mother 's cells helped to create but also they were all so badly educated they were living withsome strange godly fear that Henrietta still felt pain when her cells were tested on. Scientists are not the evil group in my opinion.  Johns Hopkins hospital/ University never sold Hela cells and shared their research with other scientists freely.  It was only when the cells had to be made on mass that drugs companies started to turn a profit on them. The problem is the health system in which the Lacks were embedded  A system which demonises the poorest and weakest in the community. 

The idea of informed consent did not exist in the 50s and doctors took samples from all cancerous biopsies from this hospital at the time. Henrietta just happened to be the perfect case. No cells ever reproduced in culture as well as hers. 

Anyway, if any of the above topics are interesting for you and you have a strong stomach then read this book.  It really made me think, the science was fairly easy to understand and the Lacks family story was interesting, irritating, annoying and heartbreaking all at the same time.  All I can say is thank god I don't have to deal with the American health system!  As for the history of black only wards and black only toilets and secret syphillis testing on the black wards in Tuskegee...it's a history that has to be read to be believed.