Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks was an African American born in 1920, who had a very severe form of cervical cancer. Without her knowledge some cancer cells, now known as HeLa cells, were taken for medical research. These cells were kept alive and grown in the lab enabling research that had never been done before. The cells were then mass grown and helped in the research or cure of polio, AIDS and cancer.

The book parallels the life of Henrietta Lacks with the story of the cells. How the family lived in poverty yet the cells made money for those who developed patents from working with them.

Henrietta died at the age of 31, but her cells live for ever and save the lives of other people, and that is the story of the book.

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