The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Who has the right to our body, or its parts, or biological material taken for analysis: we, doctors, scientists. For the first time, it was possible to cultivate "immortal" cells of the human body in the 1950s. This literally revolutionized all medical science. HeLa cells helped develop vaccines for polio, uncover the secrets of cancer diseases, viruses, and the effects of nuclear explosions; they helped make significant strides in the study of artificial insemination, cloning, and genetic mapping. And inevitably, they became the subject of "buying and selling": some grew rich, while others had no idea that "experiments" were being conducted on them. Now scientists could pause the development of cells at any interval throughout the experiment to compare the reaction of certain cells to a drug after one, two, or six weeks. This book is a dramatic story about the fate of an ordinary woman who gifted the world her immortal cells, about honest and dishonest doctors, about courtroom battles, and the birth of bioethics. A beautiful and dramatic scientific investigation that is impossible to put down.