★★★☆☆ Disappointing

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot

Sometimes when you reach the end of a book, you think, "Thank God that's over!" Never a good sign. That, I am sorry to say, is how I felt when I reached the end of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Although I learned new things and appreciated Rebecca Skloot's missionary zeal, I felt that she oversold her case. And this always makes me suspicious -- if you have to exaggerate your case, how strong can it really be?

I am a retired biologist, so I know what HeLa cells are. Although I have never used them myself (my work was mostly with invertebrates), I've heard about them forever. As a grad student in the late 70s, I even heard the false story that they were named after a woman called Helen Lane, the story that so outrages Skloot and Henrietta Lacks' family. There is no question that Lacks was treated very badly. Among the very least of the shabby treatment to which she was subjected was the use of her cells without anything approaching true informed consent.

As for that exaggeration I mentioned: How important, really, have Hela cells been to biological research? They were used to develop polio vaccine, and yes, a colleague of mine, a biochemist, still uses them in his research. Hela cells are used because they grow faster and more easily in culture than any other human cell line. Most researchers I know avoid them, however, because they are so unusual as to be a poor guide to real human biology.

I don't know of any biologists who believe that HeLa cells have played an indispensable role in research. What would have happened if there were no HeLa cells? Researchers would instead have used what is now the second-fastest growing cell line. The results probably (it's a counterfactual, no no one can know for sure) would have been pretty much the same. Maybe the research would have cost a little more, but maybe correct conclusions would have been reached a little faster as a result of using cells that were a little closer to normal than HeLa.

Henrietta Lacks was a remarkable woman who was badly treated. But her story is marred by exaggerating the importance of her cells.

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