I don't normally read medical non-fiction. If anything, I stick to science or history when I venture into the realms of reality. But I judged a book by its cover, even though that normally results in bad writing and a trip to Half Price. This gamble paid off though - I picked up
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
at first because it stood out in a row of black spines like a bright orange beacon. I bought it because of the first few pages; a human interest story about HeLa cells.
I wasn't familiar with HeLa cells but I was intrigued by the beginning of the book and a hint of mystery wrapped in human biology. And after reading this book, I am extremely glad for the initial appeal. It means others have or will pick up this book just as I did and read it. I hope many read this book. It is an easy read, which will reach a broader audience than most "science" books I read. The story-telling approach Skloot takes is a good vehicle to move the book along. She also explains medical and genetic information in layman's terms, making the book easier to grasp than it could have been.
But the writing isn't why I am recommending this book. I am going to tread into controversial opinions in order to explain the passion I have for this book and I truly hope I do not offend any of my readers (all 3 of you). I shy away from this type of post on the Web; I've seen ugly, hateful comments about lesser subjects so I will not put all of my thoughts into words here but there are a few items that I must bring up in order to actually review this book.
First and foremost, this book tells the story of and the injustices suffered by a woman and her family. I was actually surprised that some of the things described in this book could really happen - that they did really happen. There are too many things left out of our classrooms and textbooks. The story of Henrietta Lacks is a testament to that fact. Yes, I learned about slavery and the civil rights movement. But I had never put any of it into a context that was more than just a set of dates to memorize. These things were in the past, issues that were no longer modern. Maybe I was just naive or maybe I just didn't want to see it as anything else. Then I thought about this female writer, around my age, driving through old slave communities and talking to families who still remembered so much of it; not as history but as reality. Like a clicking light switch I finally grasped how close that
history really was. As a child, my grandmother would have thought slavery was a normal everyday institution; as a child, my father would have accepted the Jim Crow laws as "normal". This is the first book that has ever made slavery real, possible, close. I give props to Skloot for opening at least my eyes to this fact and all the injustices I hadn't fully realized.
Second, this book puts questions about social and moral issues pertaining to our bodies into common language. When does our right to govern our bodies or tissue from our bodies end? At what point does science get to call it "tissue" and forget it belongs to a person? Should we let human cells and tissues become "big business"? These are all very hard questions and they will not be answered over night or by one opinion. But the fact that there are schools of thought which think we should not have a choice in the matter is completely shocking and appalling. This book made me angry. And it made me suspicious; I've read every medical consent form in full before signing now that I've completed this book. What rights am I giving up without even realizing it every time I go to the doctor? I believe in research; but I also believe in the right to make informed decisions about my body and that of my family's. This book will make you question if you are getting that right or not.
The only thing I do have to criticize is the fact that a portion of the proceeds of this book are not being donated to the Lacks family or the scholarship fund set up by Skloot. In fact, there is only a brief mention of the scholarship fund in the book itself and a small notation in the back jacket. After the story of others exploiting this family, I had expected more. Otherwise, it is a good read. And hopefully it will make readers think about what we've done in the name of science and what we can expect from our future in the name of science.
