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An Immortal Life

3 April 2010 No Comment

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2010)

By Mica Powers

Henrietta Lacks around 1945

Who would have thought that a class taken by a teen would eventually lead to a 10 year journey unearthing a woman’s story for the world to see? Author Rebecca Skloot was taking a Biology course as a teen when her professor mentioned that information known by cancer researchers came from studying the cells of a woman named Henrietta Lacks. After simply adding an off-hand comment that she was Black, he continued on teaching the rest of the class. After the class, Skloot asked him various questions about the woman, none of which he could answer, which left her curious about this Black woman that no one knew anything about. Years later after college she set out to research and write the unknown story of Henrietta, financing her research trips to Baltimore area (where Henrietta’s descendants still live) with credit cards and student loans.

The facts: Henrietta Lacks was born in 1920 and married her first cousin David Lacks, eventually moving near Baltimore, MD and raising five kids. On February 1st, 1951 she visited John Hopkins Hospital complaining of a knot in her cervix. That day she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She had radiation but unfortunately it wasn’t successful and she died at 31 on October 4th, 1951. During one of her exams, unknown on her part of her tumor was cut from her cervix and saved. Researcher George Gey was given the cells and it was discovered that they continued to multiply and never died, which was never previously seen before in the history of medicine. The sample was named Hela, taken from the first two letters of her and last names. Although it was standard procedure to not require permission from the patient to obtain part of their cells, the medical industry made millions thanks to discoveries using Hela cells. The cells have been used to discover a vaccine for polio and have been used in research for cancer, AIDS & gene mapping. A very sad fact is that her family didn’t know any of this until 20 years after her death, when the doctors wanted blood samples from Henrietta’s children to help further their research. They found out about all of the money generated by their mother’s cells and it was particularly sad because the family was (and currently is) poor and some couldn’t even afford health insurance.

“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is a fascinating and informative look at her story, what her cells mean to the science community, and the struggle of her children to accept all of this. The chapters in the book go back-and-forth in terms of year and subject matter, sometimes explaining a night on the town for Henrietta in the 40s, and the next chapter focusing on the various lives her kids currently lead. I found the book very easy to understand if you don’t have a science background, not unlike the book “Freakonomics” being easy to understand for non-Economists. Additionally, I think it featured well written historical information and at its heart is a complex, sad, and interesting multi-generational story that keeps the reader interested and invested. The book has something for everyone, which is why it makes for such a fantastic read.

The book made me feel so many emotions, from sadness that Henrietta’s children lost their mother when she was only 31 to happiness that her amazing cells lead to so many important discoveries.

I was saddened that her children were left in the dark for so many years and currently are poor (when companies have made so much off of their mother’s cells), but happy they now know how important their mother is to the history of medicine and to the progress of science.

Reading this book made me remember the time I was a teenager and watched a TV movie called “Miss Evers’ Boys”, starring Alfre Woodard. Woodard plays a nurse who knows that the federal government is running a study giving syphilis to Black men, but never tells them and devotes her career to caring for the men as they suffered. I remember being astounded that the government would do something as calculating and conniving, and it was especially sad that Black men were for it. Due to this, I was surprised but not shocked when I read this book. If the government could do something that involved hundreds, it was certainly possible that one hospital could do this to one woman.

Given what I knew about Tuskegee, I was shocked to find out that scientists worked on testing the polio vaccine on the same campus and at the same time as the government conducted the experiment. While it was exciting to know that Black scientists were the ones running the tests, it was sad to read that great American progress and deplorable American actions were happening in the same place.

As an African American woman, it was especially interesting to me, as I imagined how violated I would feel if I were in her shoes, and the idea of five kids at such a young age is heartbreaking. Additionally, the book mentioned something I had never heard before, the Mississippi Appendectomies, which were unnecessary hysterectomies performed on poor African American women in order to stop them from reproducing and also to give young doctors a chance to practice. Learning this, and coming across the incredible story of Henrietta Lacks during Woman’s History Month makes a story I will never forget.

The only thing I would recommend is less switching around subjects and years chapter-to-chapter. It was slightly distracting as it takes you out of the previous chapter’s element and feel, and you had to wait a chapter or two to find out more information beyond that chapter. There was however a timeline that pointed at the appropriate year the chapter is set in, and that was helpful. Ultimately though, this is a book that is very well researched and written and I am happy that the world now knows who Henrietta was and how important she is and will forever be to the science community and the world.