Henrietta Lacks is truly immortal. Her cells, harvested from her cervix, have been used to help develop the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization and gene mapping, yet Henrietta was buried in an unmarked grave, unknown to the world until now. This book follows what the author can piece together of Henrietta's life through her children. Although nonfiction, it sometimes reads like a fiction novel and really gets you to think about the ethics of medicine. Are our cells really ours or do they belong to history once we're gone? I thought this was a wonderful, true story that made me think more about the ramifications of medical ethics than I ever had before.
Recommended for adults.
No comments:
Post a Comment