The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot

One of science's most important tools came from a woman whose name was lost and whose family couldn't afford health care — a story about research ethics, race, and consent.

The story of the Black woman whose cervical-cancer cells, taken without consent in 1951, became the immortal 'HeLa' line used in countless experiments — and of the family left uninformed and uncompensated.