The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks [electronic resource] / Rebecca Skloot.

Author: Skloot, Rebecca, 1972-

Publisher: New York : Crown Publishers, c2010.

ISBN: 9780307589385 (electronic bk. : Adobe Digital Editions)
0307589382 (electronic bk. : Adobe Digital Editions)

Description: 1 online resource (x, 369 p.)

Subject: Lacks, Henrietta, 1920-1951 Health.
Lacks, Henrietta, 1920-1951.
Cancer Patients Virginia Biography.
HeLa cells.
Cancer Research.
Cell culture.
Medical ethics.
Human experimentation in medicine United States History.
African American women History.
Tissue Donors United States Biography.
Tissue and Organ Procurement ethics United States.
African Americans United States Biography.
Confidentiality ethics United States.
Hela Cells United States.
History, 20th Century United States.
Human Experimentation ethics United States.
Prejudice United States.
Electronic books.
Electronic books. local

Notes: Title from eBook information screen.

Contents: Life. The exam ... 1951 ; Clover ... 1920-1942 ; Diagnosis and treatment ... 1951 ; The birth of HeLa ... 1951 ; "Blackness be spreadin all inside ... 1951 ; "Lady's on the phone" ... 1999 ; The death and life of cell culture ... 1951 ; "A miserable specimen ... 1951 ; Turner Station ... 1999 ; The other side of the tracks ... 1999 ; "The devil of pain itself" ... 1951 -- Death. The storm ... 1951 ; The HeLa factory ... 1951-1953 ; Helen Lane ... 1953-1954 ; "Too young to remember" ... 1951-1965 ; "Spending eternity in the same place" ... 1999 ; Illegal, immoral, and deplorable ... 1954-1966 ; "Strangest hybrid" ... 1960-1966 ; "The most critical time on this earth is now" ... 1966-1973 ; The HeLa bomb ... 1966 ; Night doctors ... 2000 ; "The fame she so richly deserves" ... 1970-1973 -- Immortality. "It's alive" ... 1973-1974 ; "Least they can do" ... 1975 ; "Who told you you could sell my spleen?" ... 1976-1988 ; Breach of privacy ... 1980-1985 ; The secret of immortality ... 1984-1995 ; After London ... 1996-1999 ; A village of Henriettas ... 2000 ; Zakariyya ... 2000 ; Hela, goddess of death ... 2000-2001 ; "All that's my mother" ... 2001 ; The hospital for the Negro insane ... 2001 ; The medical records ... 2001 ; Soul cleansing ... 2001 ; Heavenly bodies ... 2001 ; "Nothing to be scared about" ... 2001 ; The long road to Clover ... 2009 -- Where they are now.

Summary: 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.