http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123232331
In 1951, an African-American woman named Henrietta Lacks was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer. She was treated at Johns Hopkins University, where a doctor named George Gey snipped cells from her cervix without telling her. Gey discovered that Lacks' cells could not only be kept alive, but would also grow indefinitely.
For the past 60 years Lacks' cells have been cultured and used in experiments ranging from determining the long-term effects of radiation to testing the live polio vaccine. Her cells were commercialized and have generated millions of dollars in profit for the medical researchers who patented her tissue.
A theologian, atheist, philosopher or joe the plumber has to find the notion of immortal cells perplexing ,refreshing, sustaining or bewildering. Regardless of the view point , imagination and understanding, Henriette Lacks might be viewed as a reincarnation of EVE centuries from now. As we celebrate African Genesis Month, there is much for us to still understand in the speeding sojourn on the speck of dust in the cosmos.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Henrietta-Lacks-Immortal-Cells.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/03/books/03book.html?ref=books
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