The immortal life of henrietta lacks study guide answers

Should the family be financially compensated for the HeLa cells? If so, who do you believe that money should come from? Do you feel the Lackses deserve health insurance even though they canвЂ™t afford it? How would you respond if you were in their situation?ДЎ2. Deborah says, вЂњBut I always have thought it was strange, if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family canвЂ™t afford to see no doctors? DonвЂ™t make no senseвЂќ (page 9). You got to remember, times was different.вЂќ Is it possible to approach history from an objective point of view? If so, how and why is this important, especially in the context of HenriettaвЂ™s story?ДЎ1. Consider DeborahвЂ™s comment on page 276: вЂњLike IвЂ™m always telling my brothers, if you gonna go into history, you canвЂ™t do it with a hate attitude. How do you think public interpretation might have been different if the piece had been published at the time of HenriettaвЂ™s death in 1951? How is this different from the way her story is being interpreted today? How do you think HenriettaвЂ™s experiences with the medical system would have been different had she been a white woman? What about ElsieвЂ™s fate?ДЎ0. In 1976, when Mike RogersвЂ™s Rolling Stone article was printed, many viewed it as a story about race (see page 197 for reference). 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?Д©. Henrietta signed a consent form that said, вЂњI 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: _вЂќ (page 31). Since readers bring their own experiences and opinions to the text, some may feel she took the scientistsвЂ™ side, while others may feel she took the familyвЂ™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?ДЁ. 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?Д§.

Discuss the significance of the titles given to each part: Life, Death, and Immortality. Though itвЂ™s not told chronologically, it is divided into three sections. If you were in DeborahвЂ™s situation, how would you react to someone wanting to look into your motherвЂ™s medical records?Д¦. Think not only of her words, but also of the physical reaction she was having to delving into her motherвЂ™s and sisterвЂ™s medical histories. On page 284 Deborah says, вЂњEverybody in the world got her cells, only thing we got of our mother is just them records and her Bible.вЂќ Discuss the deeper meaning behind this statement. Deborah shares her motherвЂ™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.вЂќ 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?ДҐ. In a review for the New York Times, Dwight Garner writes, вЂњMs. How would you react? What questions would you ask?Д¤. 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?ДЈ. 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 HenriettaвЂ™s relatives said to Skloot, вЂњIf you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, thatвЂ™s dishonestвЂќ (page xiii).

What does Skloot say on pages xiiiвЂ“xiv and in the notes section (page 346) about how she did this?Дў. 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.вЂќ Consider the process Skloot went through to verify dialogue, re-create scenes, and establish facts. On page xiii, Rebecca Skloot states, вЂњThis is a work of nonfiction.

The immortal life of henrietta lacks study guide answers