The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Rebecca Skloot

This book was about the journey of discovering "who was Henrietta Lacks?" Henrietta died in 1951 of cervical cancer. She left behind five children, the oldest two being about 16 and 12 the last three all under 5yrs old. The little ones never knew their mother and grew up wondering who she was. There is controversy around The removal of Henrietta's cells as neither she nor her husband gave permission to donate the cells to science. Henrietta's cells have made her immortal because they were used to develop the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Rebecca bonds with Henrietta's only surviving daughter, Deborah, on a journey to discover not only who her mother was, but who her sister Elsie was and how she died in a state hospital. The journey is heartbreaking, but eye opening not only to the woman who unknowing made the world a much better place, though she died in terrible pain, but to the scientific experimentation done to people with no voice. This is a must read.