This is a wonderful book - accessible and yet informative, personal and yet broadly applied. Research is a complicated undertaking, with many players. But as the book points out, the often forgotten players are those that (knowingly or unknowingly) donate the tissue samples that are the foundation of the work. Ethical debates surrounding the work abound and there are no easy answers. 
 The challenge of informed consent is a fascinating topic. The processes and implications of research take years to fully understand, yet researchers ask that people with no scientific background try to digest abstract scientific possibilities. In recent years, community involvement in research-related ethical discussions has been expanded and researchers (including physicians) are learning to communicate more clearly. But the issues raised in this book will continue to be discussed for years to come. 
 As a personal story, this book is powerful and heartbreaking in many ways. The treatment of the immediate family was disconcerting. There was little thought as to how use of Henrietta's cells would affect her family, let alone how her death would affect her children and extended family. 
 In many ways, this book reminded me of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. Hopefully, this book will have a similar impact on researchers and physicians - reminding them that people and families need care and attention. They need to know the truth and understand what is happening. It was good to see that many of the current researchers and physicians in the book seemed to understand that this family was not well-served by the doctors, the hospital and the scientific community. 
 I rate this book 4/5 and highly recommend its reading - it is an important book and, with the mapping of the genome, the issues raised will only become more critical.