LAST CALL FOR FREE ADVANCE READER’S COPY FOR PROFESSORS.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot is forthcoming February 2010.  For a limited time FREE Advance Reader’s Copy Available for Professors and Teachers. To request a free copy, email rhacademic@randomhouse.com  with your name, college address and department name.

**Book is being used in several classes at Sweet Briar College in Virginia in the Spring 2010 semester

In 1951, an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks, stricken with cervical cancer, became an involuntary donor of cells from her cancerous tumor, which were propagated by scientist George Otto Gey to create an immortal cell line for medical research. These cells are now known worldwide as HeLa. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, award-winning science writer Rebecca Skloot brilliantly weaves together the Lacks’s story–past and present–with the story of the birth of bioethics, the story of HeLa cells, and the dark history of experimentation on African Americans. Important, powerful, and compassionate, this is a remarkable work of science and social journalism.

“The Immoral Life of Henrietta Lacks is an ideal book for classroom discussions in bioethics, history of science, and science journalism. Author Rebecca Skloot does an exceptional job of raising critical issues that should encourage both scholars and students to reevaluate the research decision making process, the way research subjects are treated, and the balance of power in this country as determined by race, economics, and even education. An incredibly readable and smart text that should be a part of countless university discussions. — Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, and Professor of Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison

“A rich, resonant tale of modern science, the wonders it can perform and how easily it can exploit society’s most vulnerable people.”– Publishers Weekly, starred review  (For the complete Publishers Weekly review, go to: http://rebeccaskloot.com/?p=394)

For Publishers Weekly article and book excerpt , go to:

www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6705892.html

“Deftly weaving together history, journalism and biography, Rebecca Skloot’s sensitive account tells of the enduring, deeply personal sacrifice of this African American woman and her family…A stunning illustration of how race, gender and disease intersect to produce a unique form of social vulnerability, this is a poignant, necessary, and brilliant book.”—Alondra Nelson, associate professor of sociology, Columbia University

Science journalist and author Rebecca Skloot will be the “Lunch With an Author” session at the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) conference on Saturday, March 6, 2010 and also “Author Meets the Critics” session on Saturday, March 6, 2010, 4-5:30pm.  For more details, visit the APPE website at  http://www.indiana.edu/~appe

Author website: rebeccaskloot.com/

For more information on the book or author, visit http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart

For Booklist’s Story Behind the Story: Rebecca Skloot’s Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks go to: http://www.booklistonline.com/default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=3886330