What an truly incredible story. A poor, black woman named Henrietta Lacks, from Clover, Virginia, dies a painful death of cervical cancer in 1951. No one would know her remarkable story... unless a science journalist, Rebecca Skloot, took it upon herself to investigate Henrietta and HeLa cells and write this best seller.
After ten years of investigating, Rebecca discovers that unbeknown to Henrietta's family, her doctor had taken samples of her cancerous cells and was experimenting with them in his laboratory.
Amazingly, Henrietta's cells stayed alive and multiplied at such a rate her doctor was able to use them in important medical research, including developing the polio vaccine, cloning, in vitro fertilisation and more. Her cells have been sold for billions of dollars and were the first living cells to be taken into space. It is twenty years on before her family become aware of what has happened and that in a strange way she is still living on.
This books raises many questions regarding medicine, ethics and race issues. A fascinating book.
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