Nicolas Ward's Reviews > The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

This is one of the better pieces of long-form science reporting that I've ever read, and it has a healthy dose of human interest thrown in. I've wanted to read it since the author appeared on The Colbert Report, which was also the first time I was explicitly aware of the HeLa cell line, despite my past experience with biochemistry. It is also a pretty depressing story when you look at how Henrietta's rights as a patient were violated, how much money has been made off of research using her cells, and how none of it has helped her generally impoverished extended family.

My main criticism of the book is that Skloot got too close to her subjects, and her bias in favor of getting their story out, and thinking the family should get some recognition (and healthcare), is evident. That said, I think that actually enhanced the storytelling, because she was up front about it, and it brings the painful experiences of the Lacks family closer. The afterword is also a strong argument for better consent regarding tissue research, and even rails against gene patents briefly (which I think are even more terrible than software patents).

A quick read, with some fascinating trivia and some depressing realities of how poor African-Americans have been treated by the medical profession, historically and today. It is very probable that Ms. Lacks will turn out to be the most important single contributor to medical research in the 20th century, and beyond, even though she herself doesn't know it.