While I believe that this book raised some very poignant questions about scientific progress and the way research is used in modern society, I disagreed with the premise that this book tried to push. 
 Henrietta Lacks was a Black woman who died of cancer, but whose cells happened to live until this day. The book argues that Henrietta was taken advantage of because she was Black and uneducated and that her family deserves compensation for the money that has been made off the woman's cells. 
 At first it sounds like the pharmaceutical companies, whom I do believe are the embodiment of all evil, nefariously plotted to steal this woman's cells. But as the story progresses, its clear that her cells were just a scientific fluke that happened to help out a lot of people in the end. Henrietta received the best care available for cancer at the time and died as she did because it was a type of cancer that was incurable. Do I believe her family should have received some financial help with her medical payments? Yes. Do I think they need to be recognized time and time again simply because of their mother's donation of cells? No. Just like I believe an embryo is not a human, I believe that cells are not a person. 
 While the book tried to argue for ownership of our cells and fluids, I think that such a thing would stifle science. However, I do not believe that any scientist has the right to keep pumping any one human being for a particular substance if it proves profitable, and I do believe that the book is fantastic for shedding a spotlight on this kind of practice. That however, was not the case with Henrietta. 
 Like I said the book was educational, and while I empathize with the psychological decay of Henrietta's daughter in the absence of a mother, I think her problems had nothing to do with cells and more to do with her mother being taken from her at an early age by that terrible disease.