Review: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

This book had honestly been on my to-read list forever. My mom read it over the summer, and as soon as she started talking about the subjects it addresses-- medicine, cell biology, history, bioethics-- I knew it would be right up my alley.

The book itself is a work of non-fiction chronicling the life of Henrietta Lacks, a young African-American women who died of cervical cancer in the early 1950s. Just before her death, her physician scraped a few cells from her tumor, and, without her knowledge or consent, began growing them in culture.  Today, descendants of those cells, nicknamed "HeLa",  are used in nearly every cell culture lab on the planet.

Observe:

snapped a couple of days ago in my lab. 

although I don't personally work with HeLa cells, lots
of folks at the EPFL do. 

To be honest,  the book left me with somewhat mixed feelings.  I really enjoyed the portions talking about Henrietta's life and the lives of her family members. The author did a fantastic job explaining how Henrietta's descendants battled with the ethical implications of HeLa cells, and it definitely got me thinking about bioethics in general. What I didn't like, however, was how the book treated the actual science. I'll be honest-- I'm up to my ears in cell culture and definitely biased, but I thought the science portions were overly simplified.

The verdict? 3/5