About the Book
“She's the most important person in the world and her family living in poverty. If our mother is so important to science, why can't we get health insurance?”
Review
This book brought up so many questions and started a lot of conversations between me and my husband. One thing I really appreciated was how it offered the story in an unbiased way. It told the facts and show the pros and cons. I believe that was the best way to tell this story.
It's a really heavy read. Many things have changed since the fifties, but there's also the same distance between science and Humanity. I love science, and I am a huge supporter of progress. But where is the line drawn? Why must we put the lives of people below that of research?
I especially like that we got to know the person behind the reasons we have the vaccinations and treatment of diseases that around today. Yes, scientific discoveries are important and necessary to grow as a society, but there needs to be a balance.
Much of this book made me angry. Not so much does they use the cells without permission, because I already know modern log grants access to discarded parts of the body, but they lied. They tricked her family to further their research. They profited off of her. It is that dishonesty that bothers me.
I really liked this book and I am definitely looking forward to the upcoming movie