The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Grade Levels

Excerpt

Learning Objectives: 
By the end of this unit, students should be able to

• describe the biographical aspects of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks;
• identify the role of racism in the Lackses’ interactions with doctors in the 1970s;
• recognize the use of irony throughout the text;
• discuss the research and scientific advances to which HeLa contributed;
• discuss the issues related to scientific ethics which are raised by Henrietta’s and the Lackses’ experiences;
• explore how Deborah’s relationships with her mother and the HeLa cells progress;
• discuss the themes of race and social class, citing examples from the text;
• debate the importance of informed consent;
• explain the Lackses’ anger at Johns Hopkins and the others they perceive to be involved with discovering and selling HeLa;
• investigate the dehumanization of research subjects in the text;
• describe the importance of Henrietta Lacks being recognized as the HeLa donor.

Introductory Lecture: 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks possesses the qualities of a biography, a science fiction novel, and a science textbook combined. Published as a non-fiction book in 2010 by Rebecca Skloot, it reveals the story of Henrietta Lacks, the unacknowledged woman whose cells, known as HeLa, have irrevocably changed the face of science and medicine. Those cells, taken without her knowledge or consent in 1951, have been sold by the billions to be used in research that has led to vital advances in medicine over the past 60 years. Yet, for over 20 years, her family had no idea that a piece of Henrietta was still alive. Flawlessly weaving a touchingly tragic narrative of a daughter’s search for the mother she never knew into a scientific history about one of the most important things to happen in medicine over the past century, Skloot explores the woman behind the cells in such a way that she raises questions about science, ethics, race, and class.

Skloot tells the story of Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cell line using a collection of research as well as personal interviews with surviving members of Henrietta’s family. When Henrietta was diagnosed and treated for cervical cancer in 1951, informed consent was not required for the doctors to obtain and use a sample of her tissue in their research, and so the doctors did not feel obligated to inform Henrietta, or her family, when they discovered that the HeLa cells were the first human immortal cell line. For decades after Henrietta’s death, her family was unaware that her cells were being sold worldwide and used in medical research that led to the development of the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping and many other advances in disease prevention, cancer research, and the field of tissue culture.

Deborah Lacks, Henrietta’s daughter, could not bear that the mother she never had a chance to know was not acknowledged for her many contributions to medicine, and after Skloot contacted her, Deborah educated herself about her mother’s cells and began answering the many questions that had plagued her throughout her life. While Skloot seeks redemption for a family, she simultaneously explores the ethics related to race and social class in medical research.

In response to the history of the Lacks family and research about Henrietta, Skloot distinguished herself from others interested in their story by establishing the Henrietta Lacks Foundation, an organization that provides members of the Lacks family (and others who meet certain criteria) with funds for educational or medical needs. In an August 2013 National Geographic article regarding the National Institute of Health’s invitation for two of Henrietta’s descendants to participate in discussions about HeLa cells, Skloot admitted that she hoped the book would lead to a “big national discussion that would result in scientists and the Lacks family being in the room together talking and making some kinds of decisions about policy.” She is also proud of being connected to the first college-educated generation of the Lacks family, the first who know about HeLa and understand how Henrietta impacted the world.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was well-received by critics and was named the best book of the year by over 60 media outlets, including the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly and The Oprah Winfrey Show. It has been translated into 25 foreign language editions.

Broken into three parts that focus on the title character’s “Life,” “Death,” and “Immortality,” this book explores the story of Henrietta Lacks, HeLa, and the Lackses’ struggle to make peace with the cells and the science that made them possible. The combination of scientific research and its relation to the donor’s family opens up a plethora of ethical and legal questions relating to informed consent, confidentiality, and the possible racial factors that led to the lack of communication with the Lackses.

The story’s appeal is found largely in the sense of empathy it engenders for Henrietta and the members of the Lacks family and the subsequent outrage at the lack of consideration shown to them.

Despite some of the less pleasant themes, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks also contains a positive message. The aggressiveness of Henrietta’s cancer was caused by the location of the HPV virus, where it grew at unlikely odds and by utter chance; however, the results of the research performed on those HeLa cells have saved millions of lives. Although Henrietta Lacks died in 1951, she is still doing good deeds in this world every day.

This lesson plan is based on the Broadway Paperbacks edition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Random House, Inc., 2010.

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Our eNotes Comprehensive Lesson Plans have been written, tested, and approved by active classroom teachers. Each plan takes students through a text section by section, glossing important vocabulary and encouraging active reading. Each is designed to bring students to a greater understanding of the language, plot, characters, and themes of the text. The main components of each plan are the following: