The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

It all started back in the early 1950's, when a sample of cancerous tissue was taken from a poor African American woman, without her knowledge or her consent, a common practice in those days.  Today those cells are still alive, having survived for 60 years in labs all over the world.  The HeLa cells were instrumental in discovering the polio vaccine and have even traveled to the moon.  In contrast, Henrietta's family lived in poverty and often without health insurance.  They were not even aware until decades later that there was a small part of their wife and mother still alive and being sold to labs all over the world for research.

I really enjoyed the book.  Rebecca Skloot did an excellent job revealing the woman behind the cells as well as examining the medical ethical issues behind the way in which the cells were obtained and used throughout the years.  Who owns human cells once they are taken from your body?

Perhaps one of my favorite lines in the book came from one of Henrietta's sons:  “She’s the most important person in the world, and her family living in poverty. If our mother so important to science, why can’t we get health insurance?”  Although there were some scientific blurbs that dragged a bit, overall this book was extremely well written and helped tell the story of the woman who, without a doubt, made one of the greatest contributions to science.

Feeling like a hamster running on a wheel ...

I just can't seem to catch up with anything these days!  Cleaning, laundry, cooking, reading, organizing and even blogging .... I've gotten nothing accomplished since we were all sick.

Whew, well I guess I can cross blogging off the list now.  Perhaps it is time to tackle those mounds of clothes I have sorted.  Pretty sad when the little guy has 14 pairs of socks and not a clean pair in his drawer  :P