The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The story of modern medicine and bioethics—and, indeed, race relations—is refracted beautifully, and movingly.”—Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE • ONE OF THE “MOST INFLUENTIAL” (CNN), “DEFINING” (LITHUB), AND “BEST” (THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF ESSENCE’S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS • WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Entertainment Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • NPR • Financial Times • New York • Independent (U.K.) • Times (U.K.) • Publishers Weekly • Library Journal • Kirkus Reviews • Booklist • Globe and Mail Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave. Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of. Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance? Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences. |
Contents
1 | |
9 | |
11 | |
13 | |
18 | |
Diagnosis and Treatment 1951 | 27 |
The Birth of HeLa 1951 | 34 |
Blackness Be Spreadin All Inside 1951 | 42 |
Its Alive 19731974 | 179 |
Least They Can Do 1975 | 191 |
Who Told You You Could Sell My Spleen? 19761988 | 199 |
Breach of Privacy 19801985 | 207 |
27 | 212 |
After London 19961999 | 218 |
A Village of Henriettas 2000 | 232 |
Zakariyya 2000 | 241 |
Ladys on the Phone 1999 | 49 |
The Death and Life of Cell Culture 1951 | 56 |
A Miserable Specimen 1951 | 63 |
Turner Station 1999 | 67 |
The Other Side of the Tracks 1999 | 77 |
The Devil of Pain Itself 1951 | 83 |
Part Two DEATH | 87 |
The Storm 1951 | 89 |
The HeLa Factory 19511953 | 93 |
Helen Lane 19531954 | 105 |
Too Young to Remember 19511965 | 110 |
Spending Eternity in the Same Place 1999 | 118 |
Illegal Immoral and Deplorable 19541966 | 127 |
Strangest Hybrid 19601966 | 137 |
The Most Critical Time on This Earth Is Now 19661973 | 144 |
The HeLa Bomb 1966 | 152 |
Night Doctors 2000 | 158 |
The Fame She So Richly Deserves 19701973 | 170 |
9 | 175 |
Part Three IMMORTALITY | 177 |
Hela Goddess of Death 20002001 | 250 |
All Thats My Mother 2001 | 259 |
The Hospital for the Negro Insane 2001 | 268 |
34 | 279 |
Soul Cleansing 2001 | 286 |
Heavenly Bodies 2001 | 294 |
Nothing to Be Scared About 2001 | 297 |
The Long Road to Clover 2009 | 305 |
Where They Are Now | 311 |
Afterword | 315 |
Acknowledgments | 329 |
Notes | 338 |
42 | 340 |
49 | 356 |
359 | |
361 | |
365 | |
366 | |
368 | |
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Common terms and phrases
asked Baltimore blood Bobbette body called cancer cells cell culture cell line cervical cancer Christoph chromosomes cloning Cofield contamination cousins covered Crownsville Deborah doctors Elsie eyes Gartler Gary genes genetic George Gey Gey's gonna grabbed hand HeLa cells Helen Lane Henrietta Lacks Henrietta's cells hospital Howard Jones immortal informed consent injections Johns Hopkins Jones Journal knew Lacks family Lackses later laughed Lawrence living looked Lord Lurz McKusick medical records Medicine Moore mother mother's cells never Nuremberg Code patients Pattillo Pullum Rebecca Rebecca Skloot reporter samples saying scientists sister smiled Sonny Southam Stanley Gartler stared started stop story talk tell telomeres thanks thing tissue told tumor Turner Station Victor McKusick walked whispered who'd woman wrote yelled Zakariyya