HeLa Cells of Henrietta Lacks

HeLa Cells by Nishi Singh is an absorbing glimpse into a strange episode in medical history centered on the life and death of Henrietta Lacks. A poor black woman in Baltimore, she was diagnosed with cervix cancer and forced to undergo treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was one of the only places in America that would treat indigent Negroes, and for good reason. In a script taken straight from Mary Shelley, the administration used their benevolence as a veneer to conduct medical experiments with modest restriction. It turns out that they harvested Lacks’ cells without due permission, and immortalized her in the process. To this day, researchers are still using HeLa (first syllables of her name) cells in studies that have surpassed the seventy thousand mark. Bane or boon? You be the judge.Singh’s work is actually a study guide of sorts that encapsulates a previous work by Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot’s work focused on the melodrama of the Lacks family’s trauma in finding that Henrietta’s cells had been harvested and were being distributed for use around the globe. It wasn’t so much about the breakthroughs they achieved (in the battles against a multitude of diseases including leukemia and Parkinson’s), but about how they weren’t given a say in the matter. After all, they should have made a couple of bucks out of the deal. Hopefully Rebecca Skloot is doing as well.Pick up a copy of HeLa Cells by Nishi Singh. It’s not only a great primer and intro to Skloot’s book, but gives us lots of thought about how one hand washes the other.

A friend of mine recommended this book because she knew I was a fan of Michael Crichton, who writes medical thrillers. We had chatted about one of Chrichton's books where a great part of the plot revolved around the theft of specific kinds of cells for medical research and drug development. Chrichton always uses reality based research for his thrillers, so I was horrified by the scenes he painted.Fast-forward to "HeLa Cells of Henrietta Lacks." This is the TRUE story of how medical scientists STOLE the cells of a poor black woman without her permission. That the scientists KNEW they were doing wrong was evidenced by the facts that they did not ask permission and the leading scientist lied about where he got the cells. Once the theft was discovered, did the replication of Henrietta Lacks' cells stop? NO. Sixty-three years later, her cells are still being replicated and used for research.Medical companies have made countless $millions from the stolen cells of an impoverished black woman. Her family never got one cent!The terrifying thing is that this type of medical theft is still going on today. The next time YOU go into hospital maybe YOUR genetic material will be stolen and profited from.This book is a quick read and is a fabulous story that more people need to know about. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I do not want anyone to interpret the wrong idea about what I am about to say, but I absolutely loved the book because I am in the field of research and learning this about Mrs. Henrietta Lacks cells has given me a profound and honoring outlook on how much research has advanced because of her cells. It does not mean that I condone the way they were harvest without her or her family's permission. That was to me an immoral act on the doctors that did/allowed it to be done to a person of color during that error. Due to the strict policies in place by the Institutional Review Boards called the United States Consent Forms and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, prevention of such an act will never again occur within the United States. I thank the family for allowing this book to be written and the events that led to what happened with Mrs. Lacks to be shared with the world. It is because of them that we as researchers can have a new respect for the accomplishments that are brought forth due to Mrs. Lacks cells.

I’m using for a summer camp for grade schoolers. Henrietta Lacks has become one of my favorite heroes. Praise the Lord.

First, I have to admit I love science; especially biology. Reading this book was a pleasure for me. I have heard about HeLa cells before but never knew where they came from. It was interesting to find out about their origins and learn about the donor. The breakthroughs in biology and medical science have been phenomenal over the past century but what they did was unethical and goes against the backbone of experimental testing and subjects. Although having the HeLa cells have contributed to many medical advancements. The content wasn’t all that caught my attention with this book. The author was able to bring difficult concepts to a level anyone could understand with word usage and pictures. HeLa Cells was really an awesome, informative read.

I purchased this after reading Rebecca Skloot's "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" thinking it would give a focused view from a scientific perspective and add to the information presented in her book. What a disappointment! Aside from a brief section section describing how the HeLa cells are grown in culture, the book had very little new to offer in its fifty pages of text. Skloot's book did a masterful job of explaining the scientific developments and facts in a historical perspective and addressed social and ethical issues as well. Although the "sneak peak" of Singh's book showed an image of a cell slide in color, the entire book was printed in black and white, making it impossible to fully "see" the structures in the pictures. Singh's book reads like a first draft of a young person's book report which is in major need of editing. Some sections read like brief lecture notes. Since there is no publisher listed, I assume the book was self-published by the author. When work is published, it should be in a form that is clear and grammatically correct. If the author cannot do that himself, he should employ the services of an editor to make the work worthy of publishing.

This was one of the worst books I have ever read. It was repetitive. Poor style and not worth reading. There are much better books about Henrietta Lacks

poorly written, low information content, repetitive