In the wake of a failed experiment, a scientist says, “The scientific enterprise is all about failure; I mean, you learn so much from failure. And you learn almost nothing from success.” Does Rebecca Skloot’s account of the story of HeLa support, dispute, or perhaps complicate this statement?

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks reveals how the cells of one black woman ended up being used in a huge number of scientific experiments. This process was begun without her permission, and only through Rebecca Skloot’s research did most of Lacks’s family members learn what the Johns Hopkins University physicians and researchers had done. One’s opinion of whether the staff members’ actions were a success or a failure depends largely on one’s individual conception of science and its goals. Overall, Skloot’s account seems to complicate the statement. We could say that the scientists succeeded in using the cells in a number of scientific procedures; they initially learned a great deal of scientific information and much later considered the high ethical cost of their neglect. In contrast, if we assume that one basic goal of research is to behave ethically, then they failed rather spectacularly.