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- What is your reaction to a white woman telling the Lacks family story? What does it mean for a non-member of a family to tell that family’s story? What can we learn from this about cross-cultural dialogue with others who might be different from us? Why do you think there was so little initial media attention given to the cells?
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Is the immortal life of Henrietta Lacks a true story?
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Is Henrietta Lacks a good book?
Are Henrietta Lacks cells valuable?
“Reader with a Cause” Discussion Questions for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. These discussion questions were prepared by the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) for Reader with a Cause, an online book club (“Group”) on Goodreads.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS BY REBECCA SKLOOT. 1. Start by unraveling the complicated history of Henrie a Lacks's ssue cells. Who did what with the cells, when, where and for what purpose? Who benefited, scien fically, medically, and monetarily? 2.
Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences. These book club questions are from Penguin Random House.
The Immortal Life is being translated into more than 25 languages and adapted into a young reader edition. It is also being made into an HBO movie produced by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball. Skloot is the founder and president of The Henrietta Lacks Foundation, which has been featured in the New York Times.
Discussion Questions for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. 1. Race and racism are woven throughout the book, both in the story presented and in the process of the research for the book. Skloot was yet another white person asking the Lacks family about Henrietta. How do you feel about a white woman creating the narrative of this story?
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While I never watched the HBO movie version, the book was compelling, well-researched, and eye-opening. Here are a few questions to guide your book club discussion: One of the central themes in the book is the concept of “HeLa” cells and their invaluable contribution to scientific progress.
Discussion Questions. 1. The passage in which the initial fated cells were removed from Henrietta Lacks’s body reads as follows (see page 33): “With Henrietta unconscious on the operating table in the center of the room, her feet in stirrups, the surgeon on duty, Dr. Lawrence Wharton, Jr., sat on a stool between her legs.
