# Okay. So I didn't like "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 8, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338 "2011-07-08T18:02:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Merejane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Merejane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merejane)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/21 "2011-07-08T22:18:11Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > Now, if you want a good book on the clash of culture and medicine, try The Spirit Moves You and You Fall Down. Fabulous book. I second that recommendation; it’s a wonderful book. I saw Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino shortly after reading it, which was interesting – both the book and the movie involved the Hmong immigrant community, although the book was centered in California and the movie was set in Michigan. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/22 "2011-07-08T22:26:01Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > Yeah, I kinda hated the family, too. It seemed weird to me that they expected money from their mom’s cells. Like **Sampiro** said, I think I would have been happy to have something come out of a premature death. I think the comparison is made between this and true cases of violation of medical ethics, like the Tuskeegee syphilis study. But they didn’t expect money - they expected that if they were to be pestered repeatedly with questions about their dead mother (and themselves), that someone would have the grace to explain what was behind the questions. ---
**Author:** ![Merejane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@Merejane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merejane)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/23 "2011-07-08T22:32:10Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > But they didn’t expect money - they expected that if they were to be pestered repeatedly with questions about their dead mother (and themselves), that someone would have the grace to explain what was behind the questions. I don’t have the book in front of me and it was a while ago that I read it. With those caveats, this is not my recollection. What you say may well be true of Deborah, but my recollection is that Deborah’s brothers were very interested in the money aspect, and bitter that they did not receive any. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/24 "2011-07-08T22:36:09Z")
> [@Merejane](#): > > I don’t have the book in front of me and it was a while ago that I read it. With those caveats, this is not my recollection. What you say may well be true of Deborah, but my recollection is that Deborah’s brothers were very interested in the money aspect, and bitter that they did not receive any. You could be right - since Deborah is the family member the book talks most about, I may be biased in remembering her reactions most. I really enjoyed the book. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/25 "2011-07-08T22:43:36Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Any of us who has ever had a test or bloodwork, any woman who has ever had a pap smear, anyone who has ever had anything surgically removed from their bodies might have a part of them preserved somewhere. Yep. Used for medical education, research etc. And typically without compensation. It strikes me as bizarre that anyone would cite racism in connection with the culturing of Lacks’ cervical cancer cells without obtaining permission or providing money. I can’t see anyone that long ago seeking approval or paying out dough to any such source, white or black, regardless of income level. There are numerous human cell lines in existence, and I’m unaware of any from that era where the Well-Off White Person signed a permission slip and got paid royalties. Seeing as how HeLa cells are notorious for surviving under difficult conditions and contaminating (and overgrowing) other, more valuable cell cultures, should Lacks’ descendants have to pay for various researchers’ ruined experiments? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/26 "2011-07-08T22:45:34Z")
I didn’t particularly care for the book, but not because of the family, which is like many other families with dysfunctional people and decent people sprinkled throughout. My complaint was with the author’s seeming attempt to stretch what was enough material for an article into a full-length book. It just got tedious, repetitive and boring after about halfway through. I lost interest in the subject matter and just wanted it to be over. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/27 "2011-07-08T23:05:47Z")
> [@Brynda](#): > > Now, if you want a good book on the clash of culture and medicine, try The Spirit Moves You and You Fall Down. Fabulous book. And if you want a good movie about race and medicine, try Something the Lord Made, starring the improbable combination of Alan Rickman and Mos Def. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/28 "2011-07-08T23:13:32Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > And if you want a good movie about race and medicine, try Something the Lord Made, starring the improbable combination of Alan Rickman and Mos Def. Second that recommendation. This was an HBO Films movie and it was really good. Plus it’s a true story. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/29 "2011-07-08T23:21:28Z")
I heard the same NPR story everyone else did and was unimpressed with the author. In particular, she told a story about how someone contacted the family about the HeLa cells (years and years after Henrietta’s death). The author claimed the family thought Henrietta was alive in a lab somewhere. I don’t care how poor or ignorant the family was; I’m sure they were confused, but they didn’t think their dead mom was alive! No one is that dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/30 "2011-07-08T23:55:22Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Yep. Used for medical education, research etc. And typically without compensation. > > It strikes me as bizarre that anyone would cite racism in connection with the culturing of Lacks’ cervical cancer cells without obtaining permission or providing money. I can’t see anyone that long ago seeking approval or paying out dough to any such source, white or black, regardless of income level. There are numerous human cell lines in existence, and I’m unaware of any from that era where the Well-Off White Person signed a permission slip and got paid royalties. > > Seeing as how HeLa cells are notorious for surviving under difficult conditions and contaminating (and overgrowing) other, more valuable cell cultures, should Lacks’ descendants have to pay for various researchers’ ruined experiments? :dubious: As someone who has used Helas extensively, I also don’t get why her family would have expected any compensation. There are thousands of cell lines, most derived from tumors. None of those people made any fat cash off them. I have a few lines in various labs I’ve worked in from my own cells. I didn’t make a dime. And, the characterization that Hela cells are this entirely unique cell line, that is indispensable for research is quite a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/31 "2011-07-09T02:34:20Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > I heard the same NPR story everyone else did and was unimpressed with the author. In particular, she told a story about how someone contacted the family about the HeLa cells (years and years after Henrietta’s death). The author claimed the family thought Henrietta was alive in a lab somewhere. I don’t care how poor or ignorant the family was; I’m sure they were confused, but they didn’t think their dead mom was alive! No one is that dumb. Oh dear. I was in a Barnes & Noble in Raleigh when a teenager and her boyfriend wandered past the display for this book. “Oh, I know about this book!” said the girl. “This lady, like, she had cancer and they like, took her cells without her permission and she like, lives forever or something.” :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/32 "2011-07-09T08:12:58Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > I heard the same NPR story everyone else did and was unimpressed with the author. In particular, she told a story about how someone contacted the family about the HeLa cells (years and years after Henrietta’s death). The author claimed the family thought Henrietta was alive in a lab somewhere. I don’t care how poor or ignorant the family was; I’m sure they were confused, but they didn’t think their dead mom was alive! No one is that dumb. That got me too. Synopsized from [Smithsonian](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Henrietta-Lacks-Immortal-Cells.html): > [@](#): > > Twenty-five years after Henrietta died, a scientist discovered that many cell cultures thought to be from other tissue types, including breast and prostate cells, were in fact HeLa cells. It turned out that HeLa cells could float on dust particles in the air and travel on unwashed hands and contaminate other cultures. It became an enormous controversy. In the midst of that, one group of scientists tracked down Henrietta’s relatives to take some samples with hopes that they could use the family’s DNA to make a map of Henrietta’s genes so they could tell which cell cultures were HeLa and which weren’t > … > [Henrietta’s husband] had a third-grade education and didn’t even know what a cell was. The way he understood the phone call was: “We’ve got your wife. She’s alive in a laboratory. We’ve been doing research on her for the last 25 years. And now we have to test your kids to see if they have cancer.” I’ve no problem believing an uneducated guy only a decade and a half after DNA was at all publicized would be unable to understand the specifics of the case, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t think his wife was still alive. He had watched her die and seen her buried, so that was a clue right there. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/33 "2011-07-09T14:19:05Z")
hey, from somebody that didn’t read the book, but felt like she should’ve, so is glad to know she shouldn’t’ve… Was there anything in the book about any proceeds of the book going to Henrietta Lacks’ family? ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/34 "2011-07-09T14:43:22Z")
> [@carlotta](#): > > hey, from somebody that didn’t read the book, but felt like she should’ve, so is glad to know she shouldn’t’ve… > Was there anything in the book about any proceeds of the book going to Henrietta Lacks’ family? If I remember right, the author had set up some kind of foundation with “a portion” of the book sales going there. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/35 "2011-07-09T15:01:53Z")
I heard the radio story and was totally intrigued. All throughout college and grad school, everything was HeLa cells this HeLa cells that. To find out that HeLa was actually the abbreviation of someone’s name and that they came from a black woman was cool. But even in the radio story, the family got unnerved me. I suppose it was the daughter(?) who said she couldn’t figure out what the scientists were telling her when they revealed that her mother’s cells were still living. I think she said something that intimated she felt like her mother was still alive and that she was horrified that this was kept secret from her. I don’t blame her for being so uneducated about the way cells and the body work, but I was embarrassed for her ignorance. In one way, I can see her point. I would have wanted to know about the history way before it was revealed to me. But all the other stuff she was rambling on about was irrational and I could not find any empathy for her or the rest of the family’s “pain.” I did feel something for Henrietta, though, and thought the way things played out were fortiutous for humanity, though the irony was that Henrietta herself was not helped. Really, it was Henrietta who made the initial discovery. If she hadn’t found that tumor all on her own, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/36 "2011-07-09T19:18:19Z")
> [@WolfpackJeep](#): > > Oh dear. I was in a Barnes & Noble in Raleigh when a teenager and her boyfriend wandered past the display for this book. “Oh, I know about this book!” said the girl. “This lady, like, she had cancer and they like, took her cells without her permission and she like, lives forever or something.” :dubious: Like, totally, dude. ---
**Author:** ![Clark\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c77e96/32.png) [@Clark\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clark_K)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/37 "2011-07-09T22:05:16Z")
I found the book fascinating. I can’t recommend it highly enough. The family is sad and sometimes unpleasant, but it’s the clash between that ignorance and the scientific advances made possible by HeLa that is the book’s real subject. How can this random woman be the link to such progress and yet her family is utterly untouched by it – even frightened of it? I didn’t see the family as particularly greedy, as in demanding to get rich off of something that they knew should be offered freely. All they knew was that something had been taken from their mother, it turned out to be valuable, was being used in research and drug development, and everyone else involved was making a nice living. They wanted their share of this mystery substance that, in their view, was stolen. Maybe it’s partly because I’m a reporter, but I was caught up in the author’s relationship with the family \_ her efforts to earn their trust, to communicate foreign ideas, to understand their views. It added an extra dimension to the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. If you wanted a book solely on the science, then I can understand being disappointed. But if you want a book that brings to life the gulf between the educated and the ignorant in America while exploring a scientific mystery story, then this is it. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/38 "2011-07-10T13:04:15Z")
> [@Clark\_K](#): > > Maybe it’s partly because I’m a reporter, but I was caught up in the author’s relationship with the family \_ her efforts to earn their trust, to communicate foreign ideas, to understand their views. It added an extra dimension to the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. I appreciate this point of view, but the story of her writing process just wasn’t an interesting one to me. > [@](#): > > If you wanted a book solely on the science, then I can understand being disappointed. But if you want a book that brings to life the gulf between the educated and the ignorant in America while exploring a scientific mystery story, then this is it. Hmm, that’s actually what I thought the book was going to do, but don’t think it accomplished very well. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/39 "2011-07-10T15:21:54Z")
I have to agree with **Sampiro**. Back during the Jim Crow days, Ms. Lacks received exemplary, state-of-the-art care as a charity case. I don’t think that was brought out enough. I do think the 4 or 5 children should have either received free care or medical insurance out of goodwill. Yes, it was the 1950s, but here was an abused woman, repeatedly infected with syphilis by her SOB partner, and neither the public health authorities (mandatory reporting of contagious disease, anyone?) or the police were notified. I don’t think the 2nd generation deserves anything, however. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338/40 "2011-07-10T18:33:03Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > If I remember right, the author had set up some kind of foundation with “a portion” of the book sales going there. I’d love to know more about that aspect of things. Now that there is a book (and also apparently a movie coming up) about the family, I sure hope they are making some money off their story. It would be super-hypocritical if the book and movie people are getting rich off their story without compensating them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/okay-so-i-didnt-like-the-immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks/588338.md?page=3)