The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot · 2010
Skloot's account of how cancer cells taken from a poor Black woman in 1951 became an essential tool in medicine, without her knowledge or consent, raises profound questions about race, science, bioethics, and exploitation. It is simultaneously a scientific history, a family portrait, and a moral reckoning.
The case against
Skloot writes herself into nearly every chapter, and the book slowly becomes the story of a reporter winning a family's trust rather than the science or the woman. Deborah's breakdowns are rendered with a closeness that edges toward the voyeurism the book itself worries about. You finish knowing more about getting the story than about the cells.
Non-Fiction · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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