The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an important story for the public to hear for a number of reasons. Like Lacks, many of us are subjected to unconsensual tissue sampling, and usually without being informed in any way. Any person could easily relive the story of Henrietta Lacks without even knowing it; her own family discovered the truth years after Lacks' death. Thus, her story is relevant to the public and uncomfortably close to reality. The public should be aware of what is happening to the cells given through their tissue samples in order to prevent the same situation from occurring to them.
However, her story also carries poignancy through its exposition of the general attitude toward African Americans, and women, in the 1950's. While no laws have ever been in place to require consent for tissue sampling, her story still begs us to question whether scientists 60 years ago would have paused to think about using a white man's cells for research without consent. Certainly those people could not have predicted the implications of the cells they extracted, although they inevitably had biases consistent with the time period.
Rebecca Skloot most likely found writing this book challenging because of its technical content and broad audience. After years of researching a topic, it is easy to forget that one's readers may not have any background knowledge whatsoever concerning the topic. At the same time, her book may well be read by professionals in a medical field, who would find the content geared toward the less-informed too basic and mind numbing. She most likely strove toward a 'happy medium,' where the general public could infer most of the material but those knowledgeable in the subject would not feel bored.
I do not have much background knowledge in terms of the research being performed on Lacks' cells, but I anticipate that Skloot has explained everything in an accessible way. I do not anticipate any challenges in reading this book.
