Based on this statement, do you believe TeLinde and Gey had the right to obtain a sample from her cervix to use in their research? What information would they have had to give her for Henrietta to have given informed consent? Do you think Henrietta would have given explicit consent to have a tissue sample used in medical research if she had been given all the information? Do you always thoroughly read consent forms before signing them?ĩ. Henrietta signed a consent form that said, “I hereby give consent to the staff of The Johns Hopkins Hospital to perform any operative procedures and under any anaesthetic either local or general that they may deem necessary in the proper surgical care and treatment of: _” (page 31). Since readers bring their own experiences and opinions to the text, some may feel she took the scientists’ side, while others may feel she took the family’s side.What are your feelings about this? Does your opinion fall on one side or the other, or somewhere in the middle, and why?Ĩ. As a journalist, Skloot is careful to present the encounter between the Lacks family and the world of medicine without taking sides. How would the story have been different if it were told chronologically?ħ. Discuss the significance of the titles given to each part: Life, Death, and Immortality.
Though it’s not told chronologically, it is divided into three sections. If you were in Deborah’s situation, how would you react to someone wanting to look into your mother’s medical records?Ħ. Think not only of her words, but also of the physical reaction she was having to delving into her mother’s and sister’s medical histories. On page 284 Deborah says, “Everybody in the world got her cells, only thing we got of our mother is just them records and her Bible.” Discuss the deeper meaning behind this statement. Deborah shares her mother’s medical records with Skloot but is adamant that she not copy everything. She never intrudes on the narrative, but she takes us along with her on her reporting.” How would the story have been different if she had not been a part of it? What do you think would have happened to scenes like the faith healing on page 289? Are there other scenes you can think of where her presence made a difference? Why do you think she decided to include herself in the story?ĥ. In a review for the New York Times, Dwight Garner writes, “Ms. How would you react? What questions would you ask?Ĥ. Imagine discovering similar information about one of your family members. As much as this book is about Henrietta Lacks, it is also about Deborah learning of the mother she barely knew, while also finding out the truth about her sister, Elsie. What impact did the decision to maintain speech authenticity have on the story?ģ. Throughout, Skloot is true to the dialect in which people spoke to her: The Lackses speak in a heavy Southern accent, and Lengauer and Hsu speak as nonnative English speakers. One of Henrietta’s relatives said to Skloot, “If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that’s dishonest” (page xiii). What does Skloot say on pages xiii–xiv and in the notes section (page 346) about how she did this?Ģ. Imagine trying to re-create scenes such as when Henrietta discovered her tumor (page 15). No names have been changed, no characters invented, no events fabricated.” Consider the process Skloot went through to verify dialogue, re-create scenes, and establish facts. On page xiii, Rebecca Skloot states, “This is a work of nonfiction. What impact did the unfolding of the story of Henrietta's "immortal cells" have on her husband and children, particularly her daughter, Deborah?Ħ.1. What changes in research on human subjects resulted, directly and indirectly, from the Lacks case?ĥ. In your opinion, was it "unethical" for researchers to take (and profit from) Henrietta’s cells without her permission? Why? Why not? (Define "ethical" and "unethical".) Should the Lacks family be given financial compensation in return for use of her cells? How would this financial compensation be determined? Who would pay?Ĥ. What factors (race, class, gender, "the times") do you think were responsible for Henrietta's cells being taken from her without her permission? What factors do you think were responsible for her family being kept in the dark about the many ways in which the study of her cells were contributing to medical science?ģ. How has medical science been advanced by the study of Henrietta Lacks' cells? Give examples.Ģ.
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