Every writer dreams of uncovering a true story that has not yet been heard, and that is sure to touch something deeply in others. Rebecca Skloot spent a decade researching just such a story in the life of Henrietta Lacks - a poor,black woman from America who died an agonising death from cancer, and yet who lives on perpetually through the cells taken from her to be used in groundbreaking medical research.
‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ is an award winning book that while written by an agnostic, nevertheless speaks powerfully to people of faith, since it deals with issues that Christians should be very aware of such as medical ethics, human dignity and societal justice. In a nutshell, the book is about the famed HeLa cell line - tissue samples taken without permission in 1951 from a dying, poor black woman that were found to uniquely replicate themselves out of her body, and as such have been used to make quite extraordinary breakthroughs in different areas of medicine including polio vaccines, cancer research, gene mapping and cloning.
Alternating between the scientific history of the HeLa cells (taken from Henrietta Lacks hence the ‘HeLa’ pseudonym), and the personal story of the Lacks family (most particularly Henrietta’s five children) who suffered in dire poverty while their mother’s cells were used to help others. In this regard the book challenges the justice of a system that allows human cells, no matter how unique, to be taken from out of a woman’s cervix without consent or knowledge and then profited from while her loved ones suffer through the most dreadful poverty. The point being made that as remarkable as Henrietta’s cells are, and as many lives as have been saved and as much good as has been done with them, this still would never have happened to a wealthy, white man. It is not possible to divorce her treatment from either her race or her gender, and yet at the same time, it is impossible to shake off what amazing medical breakthroughs have been made off the back of this deceit.
While ‘Henrietta Lacks’ is a touching story, it is made all the more compelling because of the gritty reality of the human drama it portrays. However, perhaps the most important part of this book is the systems of injustice it challenges, and the tragic irony that lies behind this injustice: That is how the very essence of one human being, her DNA can be taken without permission, and while it was used to do good it also was used selfishly to enrich whole corporations, all the while her children - also possessing her passed-on DNA - lived in terrible hardship. In this sense, this book is more than just a touching story, it is the first step of taking a wrong and making it right, of creating awareness and challenging the arrogance of medical practices, that while being incredibly valuable, clearly neglected the intrinsic dignity and rights of human individuals. We are human not just because of our cellular structure, but because we are connected to each other by something that transcends even our DNA. The ‘Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ is an excellent study of what it means to be fully human and as such is warmly recommended to all.