The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (52 page)

For further reading on research into aging and human life extension, see Stephen S. Hall’s
Merchants of Immortality
.

For a selection of HPV research involving HeLa cells, see Michael Boshart et al., “A New Type of Papillomavirus DNA, Its Presence in Genital Cancer Biopsies and in Cell Lines Derived from Cervical Cancer,”
EMBO Journal
3, no. 5 (1984); R. A. Jesudasan et al., “Rearrangement of Chromosome Band nqi3 in HeLa Cells,”
Anticancer Research
14 (1994); N. C. Popescu et al., “Integration Sites of Human Papillomavirus 18 DNA Sequences on HeLa Cell Chromosomes,”
Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics
44 (1987); and E. S. Srivatsan et al., “Loss of Heterozygosity for Alleles on Chromosome 11 in Cervical Carcinoma,”
American Journal of Human Genetics
49 (1991).

Chapter 28: After London

For HeLa symposium information, see notes for
chapter 6
.

For a sampling of Cofield’s long legal history, see
Sir Keenan Kester Cofield v. ALA Public Service Commission et al
. (No. 89–7787);
United States of America v. Keenan Kester Cofield
(No. 91–5957);
Cofield v. the Henrietta Lacks Health History Foundation, Inc., et al
. (CV-97–33934);
United States of America v. Keenan Kester Cofield (99–5417);
and
Keenan Kester Cofield v. United States
(1:08-mc-001 10-UNA).

Chapter 29: A Village of Henriettas

For the
Hopkins Magazine
story referenced here, see Rebecca Skloot, “Henrietta’s Dance,”
Johns Hopkins Magazine
, April 2000.

For other articles referenced in this chapter, see Rob Stepney, “Immortal, Divisible; Henrietta Lacks,”
The Independent
, March 13, 1994; “Human, Plant Cells Fused: Walking Carrots Next?”
The Independent Record
, August 8, 1976 (via the
New York Times
news service); Bryan Silcock, “Man-Animal Cells Are Bred in lab,”
The
[London]
Sunday Times
, February 14, 1965; and Michael Forsyth, “The Immortal Woman,”
Weekly World News
, June 3, 1997.

Chapter 31: Hela, Goddess of Death

The character named Hela appeared in many Marvel comic books. See, for example, “The Mighty Thor: The Icy Touch of Death!”
Marvel Comics Group
1, no. 189 (June 1971).

Chaptee 33: The Hospital for the Negro Insane

For the article describing Crownsville’s history, see “Overcrowded Hospital ‘Loses’ Curable Patients,”
Washington Post
(November 26, 1958). The history of Crownsville is also documented in “Maryland’s Shame,” a series by Howard M. Norton in the
Baltimore Sun
(January 9–19, 1949), and in material provided to me by Crownsville Hospital Center, including their “Historic Overview,” “Census,” and “Small Area Plan: Community Facilities.”

A few years after Deborah and I visited Crownsville Hospital Center, it closed. For that story, see Robert Redding Jr., “Historic Mental Hospital Closes,”
Washington Times
(June 28, 2004), available at
Washingtontimes.com/news/2004/jun/28/20040628–115142–8297r/#at
.

Chapter 36: Heavenly Bodies

The Bible given to me by Gary Lacks in this chapter was
Good News Bible: Today’s English Version
(American Bible Society, 1992).

Afterword

The figures I cite on the number of Americans whose tissue is being used in research, as well as information on how that tissue is used, can be found in Elisa Eiseman and Susanne B. Haga’s
Handbook of Human Tissue Sources
. For the National Bioethics Advisory Commission’s investigation into the use of human tissues in research, and its policy recommendations, see
Research Involving Human Biological Materials: Ethical Issues and Policy Guidance
, vol. 1:
Report and Recommendations of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission
, and vol. 2:
Commissioned Papers
(1999).

The literature on the use of human tissues in research, and the ethical and policy debate surrounding it, is vast and includes E. W. Clayton, K. K. Steinberg, et al., “Informed Consent for Genetic Research on Stored Tissue Samples,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
274, no. 22 (December 13, 1995): 1806–7, and resulting letters to the editor;
The Stored Tissue Issue: Biomedical Research, Ethics, and Law in the Era of Genomic Medicine
, by Robert F Weir and Robert S. Olick;
Stored Tissue Samples: Ethical, Legal, and Public Policy Implications
, edited by Robert F Weir;
Body Parts: Property Rights and the Ownership of Human Biological Materials
, by E. Richard Gold;
Who Owns Life?
, edited by David Magnus, Arthur Caplan, and Glenn McGee; and
Body Bazaar
, by Lori Andrews.

For a selection of related lawsuits, see
Margaret Cramer Green v. Com missioner of Internal Revenue
(74 T.C. 1229);
United States of America v. Dorothy R. Garber
(78–5024);
Greenberg v. Miami Children’s Hospital Research Institute
(264 F.Supp.2d 1064);
Steven York v. Howard W
.
Jones et al
. (89–373-N);
The Washington University v. William J. Catalona, M.D., et al
. (CV-01065 and 06–2301);
Tilousi v. Arizona State University Board of Re gents
(04-CV-1290);
Metabolite Laboratories, Inc., and Competitive Technologies, Inc., v. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings
(03–1120);
Association for Molecular Pathology et al. v. United States Patent and Trademark Office; Myriad Genetics et al
. (case documents online at
aclu.org/brca/
); and
Bearder et al. v. State of Minnesota and MDH
(complaint online at
cchconline.org/pr/pro31109.php
).

About the Author

REBECCA SKLOOT
is a science writer whose articles have appeared in
The New York Times Magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; Discover; Prevention; Glamour;
and others. She has worked as a correspondent for NPR’s
Radio Lab
and PBS’s
NOVA science NOW
, and is a contributing editor at
Popular Science
magazine. Her work has been anthologized in several collections, including
The Best Food Writing
and
The Best Creative Nonfiction
. She is a former vice president of the National Book Critics Circle, and has taught nonfiction in the creative writing programs at the University of Memphis and the University of Pittsburgh, and science journalism in New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program. She blogs about science, life, and writing at Culture Dish, hosted by
Seed
magazine. This is her first book. For more information, visit her website at
RebeccaSkloot.com
.

Copyright © 2010 by Rebecca Skloot

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

C
ROWN
and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Portions of this work appeared, sometimes in different form, in “Taking the Least of You,”
The New York Times Magazine
, copyright © 2006 by Rebecca Skloot; “Henrietta’s Dance,”
Johns Hopkins Magazine
, copyright © 2000 by Rebecca Skloot; “Enough with Patenting the Breast Cancer Gene,”
Slate’s Double X
, copyright © 2009 by Rebecca Skloot.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Skloot, Rebecca, 1972–
    The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks / Rebecca Skloot.
       p. cm.
    1. Lacks, Henrietta, 1920–1951—Health. 2. Cancer—Patients—Virginia—Biography. 3. African American Women—History. 4. Human experimentation in medicine—United States—History. 5. HeLa cells. 6. Cancer—Research. 7. Cell culture. 8. Medical ethics. I. Title.
    RC265.6.L24S55 2009
    616′.02774092—dc22
    [B]                           2009031785

eISBN: 978-0-307-58938-5

Photographs on the title page, and section pages for part one, two and three

copyright © 2010 Omar A. Quintero.

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