Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Finished (Audiobook) - "The Immortal Life of Henreitta Lacks" - Rebecca Skloot

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" - Rebecca Skloot proved to be a very interesting book.  Much more autobiographical in nature - dealing largely with the children of Henrietta Lacks and how poor and angry they are about the use of their mother's cells in biological research.


Henrietta Lacks was a real person - she died in the '50's in her '30s from cervical cancer.  Some of the cells taken during the testing proved to be culturable in a lab - something not common at that point.  The cells proved to be very easy to grow, so they became a de facto standard for research, as it was easy to grow and test these human cells.  Hela cells were part of the identification of a polio vaccine, and are widely used in understanding and leading toward cures for cancer.


By modern standards, Henrietta was not given an opportunity to choose whether or not to "participate" in research, nobody thought it worth mentioning, and her name had often been lost -Helen Lane was often used as the hela cell line originator.  As medical research is a multi-billion dollar enterprise, the family is quite upset that they've never received any money, though to them, others have directly made $$$ off Henrietta.  After the quest to understand, they became very interested in making their mother's contribution to science recognized.


The book covers the family history, up to 2010, and covers some science of biological research, and ends with discussion of medical ethics - do we really own our cells?  How should doners be recognized, if at all?  Can the science continue, if all donations, or surgical "waste" is going to be sold, or held up in negotiation for the slim chance that some profit might be made off that particular cell line?


All in all, a good book for a long commute.

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