“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”

(Via BoingBoing)

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a new book by science writer Rebecca Skloot explores this famous story and the ethical minefield that often lies between the expectations and assumptions of the scientific community and those of the public, as well as the confusion and anger felt by members of Henrietta Lacks’ family when the truth was uncovered.

“Henrietta Lacks is your mother-in-law?” he asked, suddenly excited. “Did she die of cervical cancer?”

Bobette stopped smiling and snapped, “How’d you know that?”

“Those cells in my lab have to be hers,” he said. “They’re from a black woman named Henrietta Lacks who died of cervical cancer at Hopkins in the fifties.”

“What?!” Bobbette yelled, jumping up from her chair. “What you mean you got her cells in your lab?”

He held his hands up, like Whoa, wait a minute. “I ordered them from a supplier just like everybody else.”

“What do you mean, ‘everybody else’?!” Bobbette snapped. “What supplier? Who’s got cells from my mother-in-law?”