July 2013 Book Selection
The
Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet this Thursday, July
11th at 7 p.m. in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our July book: The Immortal Life of Henrietta
Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.
Discussion questions
are below. Here are some links for additional background and information:
Comprehensive Reader’s Guide from the author’s website
1998 BBC Documentary about HeLa and Henrietta Lacks (the
Lacks family appears at around the 40 minute mark.)
The Stanford Prison experiment – a psychology experiment that
triggered changes in the ethics standards of the American Psychological
Association.
This
American Life just
updated their Patent Trolls story last month. Is this related to
patenting genes?
Coming
up, we have the following book to look
forward to reading:
Thurs.
Aug. 8 Lucky Jim by
Kingsley Amis
Thurs.,
Sept 12 Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
Thanks
for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.
Beth
Bailey-Gates
Friends
of the Fairfax Library
Discussion Questions
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca
Skloot
1)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the story of an African American woman
and her family that touches on many big
issues: bioethics, racism, poverty, science, faith, and more. What threads
stand out to you and why?
2)
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? How did her race help or hinder
Skloot in the writing and researching of the book?
3)
The author notes social inequities both explicitly and implicitly. What parts
of Henrietta’s story might be different if she had been white? What might have
been different if she had been middle or upper middle class?
4)
What role did the deferential attitude toward doctors in the early 20th century
play in the interaction between Henrietta and her family and Johns Hopkins? How
has that attitude toward doctors changed over the decades? Do patients’
socioeconomic differences affect the relationship today?
5)
Henrietta Lacks died in 1951, but her cancer cells are still alive today. Do
you think they carry some essence of Henrietta? How do you think you would
perceive cells from someone close to you that grow in culture in a laboratory?
6)
A week after you finish reading the book, will you remember how cells divide?
Do you now have a better understanding of cell biology? Either way, does it
matter to you?
7)
What does this book tell us about the history of science and how science has
progressed since the 1950s? After reading this book and considering the events
it details, what do you think are key factors that influence scientific
progress?
8)
The book is filled with stories of people used as research subjects, sometimes
without their knowledge, sometimes with ill-informed consent, sometimes because
of their inability to understand (patients with mental illness) or resist
(prisoners). Were you aware of this history before reading the book? Do you
think doctors and researchers of the past had a fundamentally different view of
people than they do today?
9)
Today the definition of ‘informed consent’ remains murky. What did you learn
about what it means or doesn’t mean? What does it mean to you?
10)
In the years since the uniqueness of Henrietta Lacks’s cells were discovered,
others have been identified with cells that are valuable on the research
market. In Chapter Five, Skloot details the history of John Moore, whose cells produced rare
proteins, and Ted Slavin, whose cells produced valuable antibodies. All three
cases are quite different in many ways, including how their doctors used the
information. Should individuals be able to profit from their own cells? Should
their doctors? With consent? Do you think Henrietta would have provided consent
for her cells to be taken and used had she been asked?
11)
How do you think Zakariyya reacted to the completed book and to the way the
family was depicted? How do you think Deborah would have reacted?
12)
One of the issues the book addresses is patient privacy. Henrietta completely
lost hers long before the book was published, but also didn’t get the fame her
daughter, Deborah, thought she so richly deserved. Why does Deborah want fame
for Henrietta?
13)
Skloot had to make a lot of choices about how she recounted Henrietta’s story
and how she structured the book. What do we know about her process from the
foreword and endnotes? How does her narrative reconstruction of Henrietta’s
life impact the story? How do you feel about the reconstruction?
14)
Skloot recounts Deborah’s abuse by Galen in Chapter 15. While difficult to
read, it gives the reader important information about what Deborah has been
through. Why did Deborah think this part of her story was important to the
overall narrative? Does it change how you see Deborah? Her father, Day?
15)
Skloot tells several stories in this book: personal, family and scientific. How
is she able to do this? In an interview with Booklist magazine Skloot says she first heard of HeLa cells at
the age of 16 when her own father was battling a viral infection with
experimental drugs administered three to four times a week. Do you think her
father’s illness influenced her decision to pursue this story? Might his
illness and treatment have influenced what threads she included in the book?
16)
Making health care affordable to all Americans has been a recent political
focus. What does the story of Henrietta Lacks and her family add to this
discussion?
