365 Blog Challenge: Post #38
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| Rating: 3.5/5 stars |
To be honest, this book did not live up to my expectations. This non-fiction book tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, a black woman who died in the 1950s of cervical cancer. Prior to her death, Henrietta's cells were taken from her cervix and given to Dr. George Gey, the head of tissue culture research at Johns Hopkins (where Henrietta was treated in the public ward for her cancer.) Gey, who had been trying to grow an immortal cell line for future cell research, hit his lucky break when he received Henrietta's cells (deemed HeLa cells) which not only didn't die, they multiplied at a surprisingly fast rate. Her cells sparked a medical revolution of cell research and aided scientific advances including the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization. They took part in AIDs research and of course advances in the understanding of cancer cells and their reaction to multiple chemotherapeutic drugs. Her cells were shot to the moon and carried in an atom bomb. The problem, or one of the many problems: Henrietta nor her family were ever asked for the cells. They were taken by doctors in an era where informed consent did not exist.
The parts of this book that succeeded, I believe, were the parts about Henrietta's life growing up in Clover, Virginia before moving to Baltimore, as well as the story of the family members who were left behind (who by the way didn't even know Henrietta's cells had made such a contribution until they were approached to donate blood to identify genetic markings on HeLa cells compared to other cells hers had contaminated.) They received no monetary compensation for the cells, and it took many years for Henrietta to be recognized for her contribution to science. Henrietta's family is poor and her sons and daughter had very little education which sparked a lot of anxiety and confusion among them when they were finally approached by scientists and journalists about the cells. The best part of the book tells of Skloot's time spent with Henrietta's daughter, Deborah, who seemed deeply effected by the loss of her mother and the presence of her cells without her knowledge. Deborah is quite the character and I think Skloot paints her beautifully, imperfectly, and compassionately.
The part of this book that failed for me, and made it difficult to want to pick it up time and again, is the information about cell biology, research politics and medical ethics. Snore. Even though I consider myself a fairly moral person, and I have an obvious interest in medicine, medical ethics makes me cringe. I got a headache just reading about the ethical questions left behind by HeLa cells and cell patents and ownership (if you're like me in that fact, skip the entire afterword of this book). So maybe it's those personal reasons that I didn't love this book, though my friend Mary, another avid reader (of more non-fiction than I), also thought this book did not live up to it's hype.
Skloot's writing is strong, though not beautiful. However, she did something for the Lacks family, specifically Deborah, that many people had failed to do. She was honest with them about her work and she followed through with her promises. Something you learn in nursing is how important it is to develop a patient's trust and give them reason through your actions to trust you. It's no wonder Deborah and her brothers were so scared and distrustful of so many people who were out for their own personal gain. Skloot did the family an honor by telling this story with compassion, even if there were parts that bored me to tears.
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