Visit Huntsman Cancer Institute’s Cancer Learning Center to learn how you can check out The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and find more resources about cancer. It also considers the ethical dilemmas of using patient cells without knowledge or consent, the way race played a part in how Lacks was treated, and the impact on her family decades later. ![]() The book introduces us to the woman who helped change modern medicine. Previously, very few people knew the source of HeLa cells. The acclaimed nonfiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot tells Henrietta Lacks’s cancer story and the revolutionary research, ethical questions, and racism wrapped up in the use of her cells. HeLa enabled the development of in vitro fertilization, the first clone of a human cell, the development of the polio vaccine, advances in gene mapping, and more. Named after the first two letters of her first and last name, HeLa cells were used in many different medical experiments because they could be grown so easily in the lab. Gey grew the cells continuously in the lab, something that had never been done before. Because of a mutation, her cells were able to survive and reproduce outside the body. Lacks’s cells ended up in the lab of cell biologist Dr. The cells were taken without Lacks’s knowledge or consent. Her doctor took two biopsies, one of cancer cells and one of healthy cells. 283-285), the author chooses to swear in her narration and it makes the. However, it is also very personal at times, like when shes talking about the Lacks family. In 1951, a Black woman named Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins Hospital to have a doctor look at a “knot” in her womb, which turned out to be cervical cancer. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a non-fiction book, and sometimes impersonal, like when the author is talking about the medical facts of Henriettas cells. Originally published April 2018 Updated February 2021 Contact Us Ask a Question Get Involved Search Jobs.Ask a Question Search Patient Education.Make an Appointment Refer a Patient Find a Doctor Ask a Question.Skloot is currently working on a new book about the human-animal bond. She served as co-editor of The Best American Science Writing 2011 and has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s Radiolab and PBS’s Nova ScienceNOW. Her work has been anthologized in several collections, including Best Food Writing and Best Creative Nonfiction. She has written more than 200 feature articles, personal essays, book reviews, and news stories. Rebecca Skloot, who lives in Chicago, has a BS in biological sciences and a MFA in creative nonfiction. ![]() More than 250 communities, schools, and universities have chosen The Immortal Life for their common read programs. It has enjoyed more than four years on The New York Times bestseller list, was listed on of Amazon’s 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime, and has been translated into more than 25 languages. The Immortal Life was selected as a best book of 2010 by over 60 media outlets including The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The American Library Association, People, The Washington Post Book World, O, The Oprah Magazine, and The Boston Globe. Part detective story, part scientific odyssey, and part family saga, The Immortal Life raises fascinating questions about race, class, and bioethics in America. Her effort produced The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which has sold more than 2.5 million copies to date, and was recently made into an HBO film produced by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball. Writer and journalist Rebecca Skloot spent ten years exploring a link between medicine, sociology, and ethics when she traced a connection between medically important cancer cells and their overlooked origin in a poor black tobacco farmer.
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