The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
We are proud to announce that the common book for 2012 is The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The book is based on the true story of Lacks, a poor black tobacco
farmer whose cells -- known as HeLa to the many scientists who use them -- were taken
without her knowledge and used to help develop some of the most important advances
in medicine, including the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization
and more. Lacks was never recognized or compensated for the use of her cells.
