The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Who has the right to our body—or its parts, or the biomaterial taken for tests: we, doctors, scientists…? For the first time, in the 1950s, “immortal” cells of the human body were cultivated. Literally, it overturned the entire field of medical science. HeLa cells helped develop vaccines against polio, reveal secrets of cancer diseases, viruses, and the effects of nuclear explosion; they enabled important steps in studying artificial insemination, cloning, and creating genetic maps.

And inevitably they became the subject of “buying and selling”: some grew rich, while others didn’t even suspect that “experiments” were being conducted on them.

This audiobook is a dramatic story about the fate of an ordinary woman who gave the world her immortal cells; about honest and dishonest doctors; about court battles and the birth of bioethics. A beautiful and dramatic scientific investigation you can’t put down.