Lecture will cover ethics of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

SHERMAN, TEXAS —David “Sonny” Lacks will visit Austin College on Monday, September 19, to discuss the personal and ethical issues related to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The lecture will be held at 10 a.m. at Ida Green Theatre in Ida Green Communication Center. It is free and open to the public.

Lacks is the son of Henrietta Lacks. He will offer a first-person perspective on the collision between ethics, race, and the commercialization of human tissue, and how the experience changed the Lacks family forever.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a New York Times best-selling novel by Rebecca Skloot, explores the issues of ethics, faith, and humanity of the HeLa strain of human cells. The cells, from a cervical cancer biopsy obtained from a 31-year-old black woman in 1951, were the first human cells to thrive in a research laboratory. The cells were easy to replicate and virulent, making them the premier strain for many types of research, used in studies on aging, testing new drugs, and others. Henrietta Lacks never was asked or informed about the celebrity of her cells, and it wasn’t until after her death that her family learned that Henrietta’s cells had contributed in scientific research and breakthroughs worldwide.

The book was selected as this year’s Austin College Common Read for freshmen. As part of the College’s interdisciplinary approach, the Common Read program provides entering students a unifying academic experience even before they arrive on campus. The Communication/Inquiry class each freshman takes pairs students with a mentor they will rely on for the next four years, and each C/I course has the option of integrating the Common Read into the curriculum.

All the C/I groups will attend the lecture. Lacks will discuss what it meant to find out that his mother’s cells were being used in laboratories around the world. He will put a personal face on the big issues of the book: the birth of bioethics, the legal battles over “informed consent,” and who has the rights to our cells.

Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas. Founded in 1849, making it the oldest institution of higher education in Texas operating under original charter and name, the college is related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA). Recognized nationally for academic excellence in the areas of international education, pre-professional training, and leadership studies, Austin College is one of 40 schools profiled in Loren Pope’s influential book Colleges That Change Lives.