Henrietta Lacks Reader's Worksheet

Name: _______________________
Directions: Answer the following questions on this sheet in ink.
Date: _____________
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

By Rebecca Skloot
Prologue: The Woman in the Photograph
The author uses several similes to describe cells. What simile does she use to describe the way a cell looks?
What simile does she use to explain the functions of the different parts of a cell? What do these similes suggest
about biology?
What is mitosis? What beneficial biological processes involve mitosis?
What happens when there is a mistake during the process of mitosis?
Chapter One: The Exam
What did Henriettas first doctor assume the source of the lump on Henriettas cervix was? What stereotype or
bias might this assumption be based upon?
Why did David Lacks take Henrietta to the public wards at Johns Hopkins instead of a closer hospital?
Who was Henriettas gynecologist?
Review the notes on Henriettas medical history found on page 16. Based on the objective details in her medical
chart, what can you infer about Henriettas life and personality?
Chapter Two: Clover
Why did Henrietta end up being raised by her grandfather, Tommy Lacks?
What are the connotations of the term home-house? What does this term suggest about the values of the
Lacks family?
Compare the medical terms describing Elsies condition with the terms used by Henriettas friends and family.
What are the connotations of the two sets of terms?
Chapter Three: Diagnosis and Treatment
How are different types of cancer categorized?
Summarize Dr. TeLindes position in the debate over the treatment of cervical cancer.
Explain how the development of the Pap smear improved the survival rate of women diagnosed with cervical
cancer.
How did doctors justify using patients in public hospital wards as medical research subjects without obtaining
their consent or offering them financial compensation? Do you agree or disagree with their reasoning? Explain
your answer.
How did TeLinde hope to prove that his hypothesis about cervical cancer was correct?
What was George Geys position at Johns Hopkins?
Explain what an immortal cell line is.
Explain how TeLinde and Geys relationship led to Gey obtaining a tissue sample from Henriettas tumor.
Chapter Four: The Birth of HeLa
Summarize the main obstacles Gey and his assistants faced in their effort to grow cells.
Where did the name HeLa come from?
Based on the descriptions of Gey found on pages 3839, offer three adjectives that best describe his personality.
Chapter Five: Blackness Be Spreadin All Inside
What important information did Henriettas doctor fail to give her before starting her cancer treatment? How did
she react when this information was eventually shared with her?
Chapter Six: Ladys On the Phone
What do the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the Mississippi Appendectomies suggest about the history of African
Americans and medicine?
Chapter Seven: The Death and Life of Cell Culture
What did Gey hope to accomplish with HeLa cells?
What did HeLa allow scientists to do for the first time?
Who was Alexis Carrel? Why did he win the Nobel Prize?
Chapter Eight: A Miserable Specimen
While most accounts suggest that Henrietta never met George Gey or knew about HeLa, Laure Aurelian says
that Gey recounted meeting with Henrietta before her death.Do you find this story believable? Use specific facts
about Henrietta, Gey, and/or medical practice in the 1950s to support your opinion.
Chapter Nine: Turner Station
What does Skloot realize after watching the BBC documentary about HeLa?
Chapter Ten: The Other Side of the Tracks
Where does Cootie think Henriettas cancer came from?
Chapter Eleven: The Devil of Pain Itself
Describe the progression of Henriettas cancer in the eight months between her diagnosis and her death.
Chapter Twelve: The Storm
Why did Henriettas doctors need to ask for her familys permission to remove tissue samples after her death?
How did Day initially respond to their request?
What made Day change his mind and allow the autopsy?
Chapter Thirteen: The HeLa Factory
Explain how a neutralization test is used to determine a vaccines efficacy.
What unusual characteristics of HeLa cells made them ideal for use in the polio vaccine trials?
Why is standardization important in scientific research?

Why did scientists want to be able to clone cells for research?
Explain the contribution that HeLa made to the emerging field of genetics.
Chapter Fourteen: Helen Lane
What reasons did Berg give for wanting information about the woman whose cells were used to grow HeLa?
Chapter Fifteen: Too Young to Remember
Describe Deborahs childhood. What challenges did she have to overcome?
Chapter Sixteen: Spending Eternity in the Same Place
Compare and contrast the different attitudes the white and black Lacks family members held about race.
Chapter Seventeen: Illegal, Immoral, and Deplorable
What was Chester Southam concerned that HeLa cells might do?
Describe the experiment that Southam developed to test his hypothesis about HeLa.
Who were the test subjects in Southams first study? Were they informed about the research and its risks?
What is the purpose of the Nuremberg Code? What events led to it being developed?
According to State Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz, what do people have an inalienable right to?
Chapter Eighteen: Strangest Hybrid
Explain what happens during somatic cell fusion.
Why did scientists want to fuse human and animal cells?
What scientific discoveries were made possible as a result of fused hybrid cells?
How did the public respond to the idea of cell hybrids? In what specific ways did the media influence the
publics perception of cell hybrids?
Chapter Nineteen: The Most Critical Time on This Earth is Now
Why didnt Deborah go through with her plan to kill Cheetah? What did she do instead?
Chapter Twenty: The HeLa Bomb
What did Stanley Gartler discover about eighteen of the most commonly used cell cultures?
How was Gartler able to link the contamination problem to HeLa?
How did the scientific community respond to Gartlers theory about HeLa contamination?
Chapter Twenty-One: Night Doctors
What are night doctors? Where did the term originate and why? What do the Lackses believe night doctors
do? Is their belief based on real events? Explain your answer.
Why did Johns Hopkins start a medical school and hospital in a poor black neighborhood? What purpose was
the school/hospital intended to serve?
Why is the fact that the Lacks family cannot get health insurance an example of irony?
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Fame She So Richly Deserves
What type of cancer was George Gey diagnosed with?
After finding out that his cancer was terminal, what reason did Gey give for his decision to offer himself as a
research subject?
Chapter Twenty-Three: Its Alive
From a legal standpoint, how is the fact that the doctors failed to obtain consent prior to taking blood from the
Lacks family in 1973 different from their initial failure to obtain consent from Henrietta in 1951?
Why did advances in genetic research necessitate establishing the legal requirement that doctors or researchers
obtain informed consent documentation prior to taking DNA samples from patients for research?
Analyze the last paragraphs of this chapter. What does Hsus request reveal about her attitude towards the
Lackses? What does Skloot reveal by ending the chapter with Hsus request?
Chapter Twenty-Four: Least They Can Do
What information about the Lackses was published by McKusick and Hsu? Why is the publication of this
information troubling from an ethical and legal standpoint?
Why do you think Skloot ends this chapter with the introduction of John Moores story?
Chapter Twenty-Five: Who Told You You Could Sell My Spleen?
Summarize John Moores story.
Describe the lawsuit that set a legal precedent for patenting biological products such as cell lines.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Breach of Privacy
How have laws regarding medical privacy changed since the early 1980s?
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Secret to Immortality
Explain how the human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer.
Are scientists able to definitively explain why HeLa grew so powerfully?
Describe the contribution that HeLa has made to research on the HIV virus and the AIDS epidemic.
Why are HeLa cells able to live beyond the Hayflick limit?
Chapter Twenty-Eight: After London
How did the people in Turner Station react to the presence of the BBC film crew and news of Henriettas
newfound fame?
Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Village of Henriettas

What effect did sensationalized journalism and fiction about HeLa and cell cloning have on Deborah? Do you
think this was the response that the writers intended?
Chapter Thirty: Zakariyya
Zakariyya uses the term disrespect to describe Geys treatment of Henrietta and the family. Explain the
specific reasons why Zakariyya feels disrespected. Do you believe Gey was disrespectful? Explain your answer.
Chapter Thirty-One: Hela, Goddess of Death
Why did Deborah decide to go see her mothers cells? What obstacle almost kept her from doing so?
Chapter Thirty-Two: All Thats My Mother
What is Lengauers attitude toward the HeLa contamination problem? What belief of Deborahs does his
attitude affirm?
Describe the way that Deborah and Zakariyya interact with their mothers cells.
What important misunderstanding about HeLa does Lengauer clarify for Deborah?
Chapter Thirty-Three: The Hospital for the Negro Insane
Compare the connotations of the name Crownsville with the name Hospital for the Negro Insane. What do
you think the directors were trying to achieve when they renamed the facility?
Chapter Thirty-Four: The Medical Records
What causes the confrontation between Deborah and Skloot? How is it resolved?
Chapter Thirty-Five: Soul Cleansing
How does Deborah respond after Garys prayer?
Chapter Thirty-Six: Heavenly Bodies
Summarize Garys spiritual explanation for why Henriettas cells lived on after her death.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Nothing to Be Scared About
According to Deborah and Pullum, how is Henriettas story going to be different for Henriettas greatgrandchildren and future generations?
Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Long Road to Clover
At the time of this books publication, how had the lives of Henriettas great- and great greatgrandchildren
been affected by Skloots research, and by the knowledge and understanding of Henriettas contribution to
science?
Where They Are Now/Afterword
What legal options do the Lackses have? What is their position on suing over the use of HeLa?

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What obstacles did Gey and his assistants face in growing cells in culture?

How did doctors justify using patients in public hospital wards as medical research subjects without obtaining their consent or offering them financial compensation?

Name: _______________________

Directions: Answer the following questions on this sheet in ink.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Why is standardization important in scientific research?

Chapter Twenty-Nine: A Village of Henriettas

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