Lillie M. Evans Library District Book Club January 25, 2016

Biography: Rebecca Skloot specializes in narrative science writing and she has worked as a correspondent for WNYC’s Radiolab and PBS’s NovaScienceNOW. She and her father, Floyd Skloot, co-edited The Best American Science Writing 2011. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Skloot’s debut book, took more than a decade to research and write. It is being made into an HBO movie produced by Oprah Winfrey. Skloot is the founder and president of The Henrietta Lacks Foundation. She has a B.S. in biological sciences and an MFA in creative nonfiction. She has taught creative writing and science journalism at the University of Memphis, the University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. She gives talks on subjects ranging from bioethics to book proposals at conferences and universities nationwide. Skloot lives in Chicago, where she is currently working on a new book about humans, animals, science, and ethics.

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Discussion Questions: 1. How has medical science been advanced by the study of Henrietta Lacks' cells? Give examples. 2. What factors (race, class, gender, "the times") do you think were responsible for Henrietta's cells being taken from her without her permission? 3. What factors do you think were responsible for her family being kept in the dark about the many ways in which the study of her cells were contributing to medical science? 4. In your opinion, was it "unethical" for researchers to take (and profit from) Henrietta’s cells without her permission? Why? Why not? (Define "ethical" and "unethical".) 5. Should the Lacks family be given financial compensation in return for use of her cells? How would this financial compensation be determined? Who would pay? 6. What changes in research on human subjects resulted, directly and indirectly, from the Lacks case? 7. What impact did the unfolding of the story of Henrietta's "immortal cells" have on her husband and children, particularly her daughter, Deborah? 8. How does the author herself become part of the story of Henrietta Lacks? (Questions issued by the publisher.)