The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks / Rebecca Skloot.
Material type: TextPublication details: New York : Crown Publishers, c2010.Description: x, 369 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 25 cmISBN:- 9781400052172
- 1400052173 :
- 616/.02774092 B 22
Item type | Current library | Collection | Shelving location | Call number | Status | Notes | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book | Phillipsburg Free Public Library | Adult Non-Fiction | Adult Non-Fiction | 616.02774092 SKL | Available | pap.ed. | 36748001997834 | ||
Adult Book | Phillipsburg Free Public Library | Adult Non-Fiction | Adult Non-Fiction | 616.02774092 SKL | Available | pap.ed. | 36748001997891 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "The story of modern medicine and bioethics--and, indeed, race relations--is refracted beautifully, and movingly."-- Entertainment Weekly
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE * ONE OF THE "MOST INFLUENTIAL" (CNN), "DEFINING" ( LITHUB ), AND "BEST" ( THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER ) BOOKS OF THE DECADE * ONE OF ESSENCE 'S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS * WINNER OF THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE HEARTLAND PRIZE FOR NONFICTION
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * Entertainment Weekly * O: The Oprah Magazine * NPR * Financial Times * New York * Independent (U.K.) * Times (U.K.) * Publishers Weekly * Library Journal * Kirkus Reviews * Booklist * Globe and Mail
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.
Henrietta's family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family--past and present--is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.
Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family--especially Henrietta's daughter Deborah. Deborah was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Had they killed her to harvest her cells? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn't her children afford health insurance?
Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [338]-358) and index.
Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer and viruses; helped lead to in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks is buried in an unmarked grave. Her family did not learn of her "immortality" until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. The story of the Lacks family is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of--From publisher description.
Table of contents provided by Syndetics
- A Few Words About This Book (p. ix)
- Prologue: The Woman in the Photograph (p. 1)
- Deborah's Voice (p. 9)
- Part 1 Life
- 1 The Exam...1951 (p. 13)
- 2 Clover...1920- 1942 (p. 18)
- 3 Diagnosis and Treatment...1951 (p. 27)
- 4 The Birth of HeLa...1951 (p. 34)
- 5 "Blackness Be Spreadin All Inside"...1951 (p. 42)
- 6 "Lady's on the Phone"...1999 (p. 49)
- 7 The Death and Life of Cell Culture...1951 (p. 56)
- 8 "A Miserable Specimen"...1951 (p. 63)
- 9 Turner Station...1999 (p. 67)
- 10 The Other Side of the Tracks...1999 (p. 77)
- 11 "The Devil of Pain Itself"...1951 (p. 83)
- Part 2 Death
- 12 The Storm...1951 (p. 89)
- 13 The HeLa Factory...1951-1953 (p. 93)
- 14 Helen Lane...1953-1954 (p. 105)
- 15 "Too Young to Remember"...1951-1965 (p. 110)
- 16 "Spending Eternity in the Same Place"...1999 (p. 118)
- 17 Illegal, Immoral, and Deplorable...1954-1966 (p. 127)
- 18 "Strangest Hybrid"...1960-1966 (p. 137)
- 19 "The Most Critical Time on This Earth Is Now"...1966-1973 (p. 144)
- 20 The HeLa Bomb...1966 (p. 152)
- 21 Night Doctors...2000 (p. 158)
- 22 "The Fame She So Richly Deserves"...1970-1973 (p. 170)
- Part 3 Immortality
- 23 "It's Alive"...1973-1974 (p. 179)
- 24 "Least They Can Do"...1975 (p. 191)
- 25 "Who Told You You Could Sell My Spleen?"...1976-1988 (p. 199)
- 26 Breach of Privacy...1980-1985 (p. 207)
- 27 The Secret of Immortality...1984-1995 (p. 212)
- 28 After London...1996-1999 (p. 218)
- 29 A Village of Henriettas...2000 (p. 232)
- 30 Zakariyya...2000 (p. 241)
- 31 Hela, Goddess of Death...2000-2002 (p. 250)
- 32 "All That's My Mother"...2001 (p. 259)
- 33 The Hospital for the Negro Insane...2001 (p. 268)
- 34 The Medical Records...2001 (p. 279)
- 35 Soul Cleansing...2001 (p. 286)
- 36 Heavenly Bodies...2001 (p. 294)
- 37 "Nothing to Be Scared About"...2001 (p. 297)
- 38 The Long Road to Clover...2009 (p. 305)
- Where They Are Now (p. 311)
- Afterword (p. 315)
- Acknowledgments (p. 329)
- Notes (p. 338)
- Index (p. 359)