Description
Author Rebecca Skloot
Publisher Broadway Books
Format paperback
Condition very good with slight bend on the spine
Summary
Science, ethics, and human history converge in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot’s riveting non-fiction account of the woman behind the world’s most important medical breakthrough. Henrietta Lacks, a poor African American tobacco farmer, unknowingly became the source of the first immortal human cell line, HeLa, when doctors at Johns Hopkins took a sample of her cancer cells in 1951—without her consent. These cells, which never died, revolutionized medicine, leading to groundbreaking discoveries in vaccines, cancer treatments, and gene mapping.
While HeLa cells transformed science, Henrietta’s family was left in the dark, never seeing a penny from the billion-dollar industry her cells helped create. Skloot masterfully weaves a dual narrative—one of medical progress and another of ethical injustice—delivering a profoundly moving story that exposes the racial and socioeconomic inequities in American healthcare.
Blending scientific discovery with a deeply personal family saga, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is essential reading for those fascinated by bioethics, medical history, and human resilience. A must-have for book lovers who appreciate well-researched investigative journalism that reads like a gripping novel.