Beverly H. (GainesvilleGirl) - reviewed on 11/29/2013 + 215 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

An amazing story. Although it's filled with scientific terms, anyone who is interested should be able to read and understand it easily. It's more than just a story of how medical scientists used Henrietta Lack's cancer cells to further the search for cures, and created building blocks of knowledge for medical mysteries the world over, as if that weren't enough. It's also about the overwhelming poverty, and the ignorance of the poor during the time period partially covered in the story. The Lacks family wasn't the only one treated badly by the medical system available to them at the time (the fifties.) In fact, in many ways they were lucky. They had Johns Hopkins nearby which had been created expressly to give good medical care to the poorest of the poor. The using of cells taken from surgical patients to help further scientific studies was not uncommon then, especially tissue taken from poor Black patients. We all have a lot to be thankful for because of the amazing studies done using these cells. I learned a lot by reading this book. I found it an excellent read.

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