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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot ~ Oct Book Club Online
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October Book Club Online
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
"There's a photo on my wall of a woman I've never met, its left corner torn and patched together with tape. She looks straight into the camera and smiles, hands on hips, dress suit neatly pressed, lips painted deep red. It's the late l940s and she hasn't yet reached the age of thirty. Her light brown skin is smooth, her eyes still young and playful, oblivious to the tumor growing inside her-a tumor that would leave her five children motherless and change the future of medicine." -Rebecca Skloot
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/books/review/Margonelli-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.biography.com/people/henrietta-lacks-21366671
http://www.lacksfamily.net/
"For Henrietta, walking into Hopkins was like entering a foreign country where she didn't speak the language." (pg.16) Do hospitals frighten you, whether you are a patient or a visitor?
John Hopkins Hospital: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/the_johns_hopkins_hospital/ Somewhere in those slides you can see the original building that Henrietta visited. Huge and impressive. One of the top hospitals in the country, they did treat black patients but segregated them in "colored" wards. Have any of you ever visited John Hopkins?
"Henrietta and Day (her cousin five years older) had been sharing a bedroom since she was four, so what happened next didn't surprise anyone." (pg.23) Was there an adult living in that household? Certainly Grandpa knew better; didn't care?
Why do you think this was allowed?
The year was 1941, Henrietta and Day got married and both worked in the tobacco fields. America was at war and the tobacco companies were supplying free cigarettes to soldiers. My husband, in the Navy then, remembered those and although he never smoked then, many of our soldiers started a lifelong addiction. Is there anything about war that we do better today?
Bethlehem Steel, 30,000 employees, a gold mine for black families: https://www.facebook.com/Bethlehem-Steel-Sparrows-Point-Remembered-130389707036916/ - click on the slide show and think of listening to that awful noise all day long. How do we prevent factory noise today for the workers?
What new thing or things did you learn about cervical cancer?
Doctors of this era were taking samples of cervical cancer without the patients' knowledge, using them for research. How would a person know if a doctor is still doing it today?
"the plasma of chickens, puree of calf fetuses, special salts, blood from human umbilical cords." What were these used for?
"Lord, it just feels like that blackness be spreadin all inside me" Henrietta said. What was she referring to? What moved you about Henrietta's life and death?
Had you heard of the Tuskegee syphilis study before?
Discussion Leaders: Ella, Adoannie, PatH
Mkaren557:
I have had this book on my bookshelf since I bought it in 2010 and yesterday I was pulling books to send to Goodwill and into the bag it went. However, I was too tired to drive to Goodwill so after I saw this, back onto my shelf it went. I hope I have time with Latin and my Austen class to keep up and contribute.
ANNIE:
When are we starting? Ella says Oct. 1! Is that okay with you, PatH?
Mkaren, we are looking forward to your joining the discussion. This is a fascinating book. An engrossing story.
Ella Gibbons:
Karen, I hope so too, it's such an interesting book and the author makes the science easy to read, easy to learn. And then there's the life of Henrietta....
WHO KNEW ABOUT HENRIETTA BEFORE THIS BOOK? IT'S AWESOME STUFF!
"No one knows who took the picture {on the cover] but it's appeared hundreds of times in magazines and science textbooks, on blogs and laboratory walls.........She's simply called HeLa, the code name given to the world's first immortal human cells-her cells, cut from her cervix just months before she died."
We hope all of you will join us in discussing this book.
Ella Gibbons:
I just saw your post ANN. Yes, we are starting October 1st. So you have plenty of time to get to the library and get your copy and start reading.
The book is in 3 parts, we'll start, of course, with Part One. We are going to be different; we shall have no dates, we'll decide when to go on to the next part. Some parts are more interesting than others to discuss, so we shall just trip along merrily and see how it goes!!!
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