Who has the right to our body, or its parts, or the biomaterial taken for analysis: we, doctors, scientists? The first successful cultivation of 'immortal' human cells occurred in the 1950s. This revolutionized medical science. HeLa cells helped develop polio vaccines and uncover the secrets of cancer, viruses, and the effects of nuclear explosions; they paved the way for important advances in the study of artificial insemination, cloning, and genetic mapping. And inevitably, they became objects of commerce: some became rich, while others were unaware that they were being 'experimented on.' Now, scientists could pause cell development at any interval during an experiment to compare the response of particular cells to a drug after one, two, or six weeks. This book is a dramatic story about the fate of an ordinary woman who gave the world her immortal cells, about honest and dishonest doctors, about legal battles, and the birth of bioethics. A beautiful and dramatic scientific study that is impossible to put down.