The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“An Immortal Life in Review”

In this activity, students will write a carefully reasoned review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

You will compose a well-supported and reasoned review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Your review should include clear evaluation criteria, acknowledge the author’s strengths and weaknesses in meeting this evaluation criteria, address any counterclaims regarding the book’s merits made by reputable outside sources, use evidence from the text, and take a clear stance as to whether you recommend this book and to whom.  

• A. Brainstorm: Develop your criteria and stance. Locate support for your stance within the book.
• B. Research: Locate a reputable review of the book. Use this to identify and address potential counterclaims.
• C. Plan: Outline or quick draft your review. Obtain feedback to ensure you have met requirements.
• D. Complete and share your final draft.

Teaching Suggestion: Depending on student familiarity with nonfiction review criteria, consider discussing or otherwise providing a list of criteria by which a nonfiction book might be analyzed, such as journalistic integrity, accessibility, or contributions to its field. In addition, you might suggest an Internet search on the book title and “book review” to see how different media reviewed the book on its publication.

Differentiation Suggestion: English language learners, students less familiar with academic research, or those with organizational or executive functioning differences may benefit from graphic organizers or planning guides for each phase of the project. Students with organizational or executive functioning differences and English language learners may also benefit from curated and/or prehighlighted and annotated research and excerpts from the book and a preselected review from a reputable source. To open this activity up to more learning styles, consider allowing alternative formats such as Book Tok or Vlog-inspired filmed responses or a showcase of individual arguments in collaborative student-led panel discussions.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. In addition to celebrating the life of an unsung hero whose contributions changed the course of medical history, Skloot uses the story of Henrietta Lacks to interrogate the role of informed consent in scientific ethics.

• Based on the novel, why did it take so long to define and establish informed consent as a legal requirement for medical research and testing?  
• Detail at least three distinct factors that complicated the notion of consent, both for researchers and patients, and explain why these factors delayed the development of legal definitions.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, suggest ways in which scientific and technological developments continue to leave gray areas in relation to consent.

2. Skloot spends a great deal of time exploring Deborah’s life, even though the twin stories of HeLa and the unsung Henrietta Lacks are what prompted her to pursue the story.

• Why is Deborah’s story integral to the story of Henrietta Lacks, warranting its own narrative arc?
• Explain what Deborah’s story, including her relationship with Skloot, reveals about a theme or themes within the novel.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, offer an explanation as to why the story of HeLa is necessarily a multigenerational story.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Skloot chooses to organize the book into three interwoven narratives rather than a single chronological narrative. Why might Skloot have considered it important to create three distinct narrative arcs? What does this approach offer over a chronological approach in terms of supporting nuance, purpose, theme, and message?

2. Religious motifs and imagery are interwoven throughout the narratives despite Skloot’s claims of religious skepticism. Why would Skloot include such motifs and imagery in a story about science? What role does religion and the supernatural play in the story of Henrietta Lacks? In what ways would Skloot’s recounting lack integrity without them?

3. Journalistic objectivity is a major ethical cornerstone in reporting, though many will argue it is impossible to be completely impartial. Examine the narrative Skloot has created in relation to her subject. What does Skloot do in terms of style, organization, and research in the interest of remaining impartial? Where might her own opinions shine through? Overall, to what extent do you consider her approach ethical and impartial?

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. What are some reasons Henrietta did not go to the doctor right away when she felt the bump and pain?

A) She could not afford treatment at Johns Hopkins if she was sick.

B) She did not like the fact that Johns Hopkins was a Christian hospital.

C) She was afraid the doctor would sterilize her.

D) She believed it was just a result of being tired out by baby Deborah.

2. What phrase does Skloot use to describe the beginning of the distribution of the HeLa cells?

A) “People got to know about Henrietta.”

B) “Growing with mythological intensity”

C) “Came from a live woman”

D) “A ten-point code of ethics”

3. How were public wards treated by doctors, and why?

A) As fair grounds for research, because medical testing was a way to repay waived medical debts

B) As places to avoid, because of cohabitation and the lack of hygiene

C) As examples of democracy in action, because people could get universal medical care despite lack of money

D) As places where easy money could be earned by fraudulent billing

4. What purpose do the details of Henrietta’s treatment, side effects, and death serve?

A) They justify the actions taken by the family to sue Johns Hopkins University.

B) They document a set of procedures and standards still in use today.

C) They correlate Henrietta’s experience and pain to the immortality of her cells.

D) They create compassion for Henrietta, who received very little sympathy from the medical community.

5. What did the scientists and journalists who made Henrietta’s identity known fail to consider?

A) Her other names

B) Its effect on her family

C) Her other illnesses

D) Its effect on George Gey

6. How did Turner Station in the 1990s differ from its ambiance in the 1940s?

A) Turner Station was a place where soldiers were shipped on to WWII, but the port is now closed.

B) The steel industry left, leaving an economic vacuum in the community.

C) Johns Hopkins Hospital no longer served the community.

D) Gentrification pushed out most Black residents, including the Lacks family.

7. What problem did HeLa cells solve regarding the polio virus and vaccine development?

A) The cancer cells turned out to be toxic to the polio virus.

B) Viral pneumonia killed thousands of research monkeys, so they used HeLa instead.

C) Unlike regular cells, HeLa reproduces at 20x the usual rate in space.

D) HeLa’s quick replication reduced reliance on expensive monkey cell samples.

8. Why were the Jewish doctors at Sloan Kettering unwilling to inject test subjects with HeLa without informing them what was in the injection?

A) They cited religious reasons that prevented them from knowingly doing harm.

B) They thought Chester Southam was a eugenicist and would not support him.

C) They knew about the human experiments during the Holocaust and the resulting Nuremberg Code.

D) They believed that testing on the imprisoned precluded consent.

9. What problem did somatic cell fusion and HeLa solve?

A) HeLa’s rapid cell growth made standardization possible in experiments by allowing for HeLa cells to be used worldwide.

B) HeLa’s rapid cell reproduction made genetic testing with humans possible despite the time it takes for humans to produce offspring capable of reproduction.

C) HeLa’s rapid growth in space meant that it was possible for zero gravity chambers to increase culture production and sales.

D) HeLa’s cells did not undergo somatic cell fusion, making them more stable during genetic manipulation.

10. How does Deborah react to the many ways in which her mother’s cells have been used?

A) She is immediately upset because the family was not compensated for their use.

B) She has her first stroke after mishearing that her mother was blown up in a nuclear blast.

C) She feels pride in her mother’s importance and horror at what her cells had undergone.

D) She shuts down and pretends she is not related to her mother.

11. Which federal laws now protect patient confidentiality and protect against genetic Discrimination?

A) FERPA and the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act of 2008

B) HIPPA and the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethics of 2012

C) FERPA and the Law for Nondiscrimination Act of 2013

D) HIPPA and the Genetic Nondiscrimination Act of 2008

12. Why was the patent case Diamond v. Chakrabarty involving oil-eating bacteria a landmark Supreme Court case?

A) It ruled definitively against the patenting of organisms on the grounds that organisms have no creator but God/Nature.

B) It created a precedent for which Henrietta’s children could sue for rights to HeLa.

C) It caused important research with HeLa to halt, delaying HIV treatments.

D) It allowed patenting of manufactured organisms, paving the way for the GMO industry.

13. What does Zakariyya tell Skloot regarding his mother’s contributions to science?

A) They are proof that she is an angel and that she was sent by God to save lives.

B) Because disease was part of God’s plan, scientists were wrongly playing God.

C) The good she has done is worth all the trouble the family has gone through.

D) In God’s eyes, it was wrong to rend the body, so HeLa kept her from her final rest.

14. What does the meeting with Christoph Lengauer do for Deborah and Zakariyya?

A) Offers them much-needed closure over their mother’s death

B) Repairs their strained relationship with each other

C) Further alienates them from the medical establishment

D) Makes them allies against their siblings, who still want to sue Johns Hopkins

15. Which literary technique does Skloot use to organize the complex story of Henrietta Lacks’s immortality?

A) Parallelism in the description of Henrietta’s various homes

B) Mirroring between HeLa and the lives of Henrietta’s children

C) Motifs showing cellular activity as integral to life and research

D) Foreshadowing at the end of each chapter to avoid confusion

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. At one point, Skloot quotes Deborah saying that what happened to her mother was not a “race thing.” Based on what you have read, in what ways is this statement both accurate and inaccurate?

2. Skloot explores what she calls “a time of great flux in research oversight.” What does she mean, and how can we judge the scientists who were part of this “great flux” by modern standards?