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Book Review: ‘The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks’ Is Riveting
By Barbara Murphy
Contributing Writer
Henrietta Lacks was a poor southern African American woman — a tobacco farmer who loved children, cooking and having a good time.
She was a pretty and vivacious woman. One of the few existing photos of her shows her all dressed up for a social outing, hands on her hips and a broad smile on her face. She is wearing a fashionable suit and fashionable open-toed high heels. The photograph has become iconic because even though Henrietta Lacks died 60 years ago, the cancer cells that killed her are still alive.
Taken from her body without permission, the cells have reproduced relentlessly and today if gathered up in one pile would weigh as much as 100 Empire State Buildings.
Scientists have used Henrietta’s cells to make wonder drugs, including the polio vaccine and big pharmaceutical companies have enriched themselves by millions of dollars using these cells, which are called the “HeLa” cell line. The only people connected to the cells who did not get rich are the Lacks family and Dr. George Gey, the white doctor from Pittsburgh who harvested the cells and then gave them away to other scientists hoping the cells would be used to find cures for many diseases and to solve medical mysteries.
(Dr. Gey lawfully took the cells and the Lacks family has no legal claim to their use. The law holds that once tissue is removed from your body, it is no longer yours.)
Dr. Gey’s hopes were realized. Henrietta’s cells were not only vital in developing polio vaccines but they have been used to uncover secrets of cancer, many viruses and the atom bombs’ effects on human beings. They also helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning and gene mapping. They have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet there existence was the result of unspeakable suffering.
Henrietta Lacks wanted to have all the children God would give her, but after giving birth to her fifth child, she was diagnosed with a particularly virulent form of cervical cancer. Henrietta died in agony.
The immortal HeLa cells were the product of her suffering and death. There was almost something Christ-like in the way her agonizing death allowed so many of the rest of us to have life and have it more abundantly.
Yet today Henrietta rests in an unmarked grave, her family home — a four-room log cabin that once served as slave quarters — and her little home town in Virginia are all crumbling into dust.
We in the non-scientific world would know nothing of Henrietta Lacks if not for the intrepid reporting of Rebecca Skloot. She is a science writer who has taught non-fiction writing at three major American universities. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is her first book. She spent 10 years researching the story of what happened to the HeLa cells and what happened to the Lacks family after Henrietta’s death.
At the time of Henrietta’s death, there were many obstacles to growing cells successfully. Many researchers, including Dr. Gey and his wife Margaret, had been trying for years to develop the perfect cell culture medium. Henrietta’s cancer cells allowed them to do this. These cells grow 20 times faster than normal cells, which die after a few days. The HeLa cells are immortal — so far the only immortal cells ever harvested.
Despite being cancerous, the HeLa cells share many basic characteristics with normal cells. The HeLa cells produce proteins and communicate with one another like normal cells. They divide and generate energy, they create genes and regulate them, and they are susceptible to infections, which makes them an optimal instrument in studying any number of things — including bacteria, hormones, proteins and especially viruses.
According to Professor Skloot, Henrietta’s cells helped launch the field of virology. Researchers have exposed HeLa to viruses of all kinds — herpes, measles, mumps and equine encephalitis — to study how each virus enters cells, reproduces, and spreads. Although they are malignant, the HeLa cells have never given anyone cancer. Unfortunately, however, some HeLa cells have contaminated other cells in other ways — creating a problem which researchers are struggling to solve while they still allow HeLa to multiply and use the cell line in their research.
While Henrietta’s death resulted in a scientific blessing for us, it led to terrible suffering for her beloved children. According to Prof. Skloot, the children were put in the care of a distant relative who must have hated the role of mother. According to the writer, this woman allegedly abused the Lacks children brutally and relentlessly. As a result, the children developed extreme emotional problems with which they have struggled all of their lives.
Yet, it was one of these abused children — Deborah — who in adulthood gave Prof. Skloot invaluable assistance in her research. The two woman became friends. After the book was published, Prof. Skloot established a scholarship fund for Henrietta’s descendants.
Laura Miller of salon.com has called the book “indelible — an heroic work of cultural and medical journalism. With it, Prof. Skloot reminds doctors, patients and outside observers that however advanced the technology and esoteric the science, the material they work with is humanity, and every piece of it is precious.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
(The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, published by the Crown Publishing Group, New York, NY; 2010, 369 pages; $26.)
By Barbara Murphy
Contributing Writer
Henrietta Lacks was a poor southern African American woman — a tobacco farmer who loved children, cooking and having a good time.
She was a pretty and vivacious woman. One of the few existing photos of her shows her all dressed up for a social outing, hands on her hips and a broad smile on her face. She is wearing a fashionable suit and fashionable open-toed high heels. The photograph has become iconic because even though Henrietta Lacks died 60 years ago, the cancer cells that killed her are still alive.
Taken from her body without permission, the cells have reproduced relentlessly and today if gathered up in one pile would weigh as much as 100 Empire State Buildings.
Scientists have used Henrietta’s cells to make wonder drugs, including the polio vaccine and big pharmaceutical companies have enriched themselves by millions of dollars using these cells, which are called the “HeLa” cell line. The only people connected to the cells who did not get rich are the Lacks family and Dr. George Gey, the white doctor from Pittsburgh who harvested the cells and then gave them away to other scientists hoping the cells would be used to find cures for many diseases and to solve medical mysteries.
(Dr. Gey lawfully took the cells and the Lacks family has no legal claim to their use. The law holds that once tissue is removed from your body, it is no longer yours.)
Dr. Gey’s hopes were realized. Henrietta’s cells were not only vital in developing polio vaccines but they have been used to uncover secrets of cancer, many viruses and the atom bombs’ effects on human beings. They also helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning and gene mapping. They have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet there existence was the result of unspeakable suffering.
Henrietta Lacks wanted to have all the children God would give her, but after giving birth to her fifth child, she was diagnosed with a particularly virulent form of cervical cancer. Henrietta died in agony.
The immortal HeLa cells were the product of her suffering and death. There was almost something Christ-like in the way her agonizing death allowed so many of the rest of us to have life and have it more abundantly.
Yet today Henrietta rests in an unmarked grave, her family home — a four-room log cabin that once served as slave quarters — and her little home town in Virginia are all crumbling into dust.
We in the non-scientific world would know nothing of Henrietta Lacks if not for the intrepid reporting of Rebecca Skloot. She is a science writer who has taught non-fiction writing at three major American universities. “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is her first book. She spent 10 years researching the story of what happened to the HeLa cells and what happened to the Lacks family after Henrietta’s death.
At the time of Henrietta’s death, there were many obstacles to growing cells successfully. Many researchers, including Dr. Gey and his wife Margaret, had been trying for years to develop the perfect cell culture medium. Henrietta’s cancer cells allowed them to do this. These cells grow 20 times faster than normal cells, which die after a few days. The HeLa cells are immortal — so far the only immortal cells ever harvested.
Despite being cancerous, the HeLa cells share many basic characteristics with normal cells. The HeLa cells produce proteins and communicate with one another like normal cells. They divide and generate energy, they create genes and regulate them, and they are susceptible to infections, which makes them an optimal instrument in studying any number of things — including bacteria, hormones, proteins and especially viruses.
According to Professor Skloot, Henrietta’s cells helped launch the field of virology. Researchers have exposed HeLa to viruses of all kinds — herpes, measles, mumps and equine encephalitis — to study how each virus enters cells, reproduces, and spreads. Although they are malignant, the HeLa cells have never given anyone cancer. Unfortunately, however, some HeLa cells have contaminated other cells in other ways — creating a problem which researchers are struggling to solve while they still allow HeLa to multiply and use the cell line in their research.
While Henrietta’s death resulted in a scientific blessing for us, it led to terrible suffering for her beloved children. According to Prof. Skloot, the children were put in the care of a distant relative who must have hated the role of mother. According to the writer, this woman allegedly abused the Lacks children brutally and relentlessly. As a result, the children developed extreme emotional problems with which they have struggled all of their lives.
Yet, it was one of these abused children — Deborah — who in adulthood gave Prof. Skloot invaluable assistance in her research. The two woman became friends. After the book was published, Prof. Skloot established a scholarship fund for Henrietta’s descendants.
Laura Miller of salon.com has called the book “indelible — an heroic work of cultural and medical journalism. With it, Prof. Skloot reminds doctors, patients and outside observers that however advanced the technology and esoteric the science, the material they work with is humanity, and every piece of it is precious.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
(The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, published by the Crown Publishing Group, New York, NY; 2010, 369 pages; $26.)