Questions for Chapters 17-23

Hey Guys Sorry for the lateness of this post. Here's some questions to consider for Chapters 17-23. Think about how to relate these to your topic or use them to brainstorm for a topic.

=>Describe the experiment that Southam developed to test his hypothesis about HeLa. Who were the test subjects in Southam’s first study? Were they informed about the research and its risks? What was the result of Southam’s first research study?

=> What does the term “informed consent” mean?

=>What was the result of the legal action taken against Southam and Mandel? Explain how the action against Southam and Mandel led to the development of informed consent forms as a standard medical practice.

=> Summarize the various ways that HeLa was used in the space program. What disturbing discovery did scientists make about the way HeLa responded in orbit?

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 public’s perception of cell hybrids?

=> What did Stanley Gartler discover about eighteen of the most commonly used cell cultures?

=>What unique abilities did HeLa have that allowed it to contaminate cultures without researchers being aware that contamination had occurred? Why would HeLa contamination be a problem for researchers?

=>What is “spontaneous transformation”? What did Gartler suggest about spontaneous transformation?

=>How did the scientific community respond to Gartler’s theory about HeLa contamination?

=> 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.

=> What does the 1969 Johns Hopkins study reveal about the researcher’s attitude and assumptions about race?

=> What is the Lacks family’s biggest complaint about the way they have been treated by Johns Hopkins and Dr. Gey?

=> After finding out that his cancer was terminal, what reason did Gey give for his decision to offer himself as a research subject?

=>What did Howard Jones realize when he reviewed Henrietta’s medical records?

=>What was the purpose of President Nixon’s National Cancer Act?

=> Do you agree that Henrietta should have been correctly identified in order to “give her the fame she so richly deserves,” or do you think her anonymity should have been protected? Explain your answer.

=>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?

 

Project Information & Book Discussion

 Please use the above email bar ^ to subscribe to the blog, that way you will receive notifications whenever I post something. :)

For finishing up the novel, here's the guidelines for the readings:

February 16th=> up to Chapter 23 (page 178)
February 22nd => Chapter 23-Chapter 28 ( 179-231)
March 1st => Chapter 29- Chapter 33 (232-278)
March 8th=> Finish reading the book

Each week I will post questions for you all to consider while you are reading. If you have any questions/comments/concerns email me at: cangell800@gmail.com

Living Book Timeline Group Project

Your group projects will be to make a creative and informative research board on a topic (main issue or theme) relating to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Each group will have 3-4 members, and you can decide groups among yourselves. The purpose of the board is to display a timeline that shows the development/changes in your topic and how it relates to the novel.

Some examples topics include: Cervical Cancer technological advances, Ethics changes, Medical Law revisions, stages of cervical cancer. If you have any other ideas, please comment below.


Note: You will also be displaying your boards on April 5th during one of the workshops for the Living Book Day at  Stony Brook.

Previous Chapter Questions

Here's the list of the Discussion Questions from the previous chapters we have read:

Disclaimer=> Questions are from: http://rebeccaskloot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/RHSklootTeachersGuideLORES.pdf

Prologue-Chapter 3

What is mitosis? What beneficial biological processes involve mitosis? What happens when there is a mistake during the process of mitosis?

According to Defler, how important was the discovery of HeLa cells?

What did Henrietta’s first doctor assume the source of the lump on Henrietta’s 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?

Review the notes on Henrietta’s medical history found on page 16. Based on the objective details in her medical chart, what can you infer about Henrietta’s life and personality? How would you describe Henrietta’s feelings about doctors?

What did Howard Jones find “interesting” about Henrietta’s medical history? What does this finding suggest about Henrietta’s cancer?

Compare the medical terms describing Elsie’s condition with the terms used by Henrietta’s friends and family. What are the suggestions made by the two sets of terms?

Contrast the working conditions of black workers and white workers at the Sparrows Point Steel Mill.

Summarize Dr. TeLinde’s position in the debate over the treatment of 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.

Explain what an immortal cell line is.

Analyze the consent statement that Henrietta signed on page 31. Based on this statement, do you believe TeLinde and Guy had the right to obtain a sample from her cervix to use in their research? Do you think Henrietta would have given explicit consent to have a tissue sample used in medical research if she had been asked? Do you think she would have understood what was being asked of her? Explain your answers.

Were cells taken only from black patients? Were black patients generally treated differently from white patients in the early 1950s? Explain your answers.

Chapter 4- 10

Summarize the main obstacles Gey and his assistants faced in their effort to grow cells. What happened to the HeLa cells that Mary cultured?

Gey chose to give away samples of HeLa to his colleagues almost immediately. Do you think this was a good decision? Explain your answer. Was Henrietta informed that her cells were being used in Gey’s research?

What was Elsie’s early life like? Why did Henrietta and David (Day) Lacks decide to place Elsie in the Hospital for the

Negro Insane?

Why do you think Henrietta initially chose not to tell people about her cancer diagnosis?

What important information did Henrietta’s doctor fail to give her before starting her cancer treatment? How did she react when this information was eventually shared with her?

Describe the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. What do the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the Mississippi Appendectomies suggest about the history of African Americans and medicine?

How does Deborah Lacks initially respond to Skloot’s request for information? What questions does Deborah have about her mother? How does Day initially respond to Skloot’s request for information?

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? What controversial beliefs did Carrell have? What details suggest that Carrel’s claims about the immortal cell line were not scientifically sound?

After her initial round of treatment, what did Henrietta’s doctors assume about the effectiveness of the radium therapy?

How did her doctors react to Henrietta’s intuitive conviction that the cancer was spreading inside of her? When did the doctors realize that Henrietta had been correct about the growth of her cancer?

What does the use of the term “a miserable specimen” by Henrietta’s doctors reveal about their attitude toward her?

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.

Who is Courtney “Mama” Speed, and how is she connected to Henrietta Lacks?

How was Cootie related to Henrietta? What illness did Cootie have as a child?

Chapter 11-16

Describe the progression of Henrietta’s cancer in the eight months between her diagnosis and her death.

Why did doctors stop giving Henrietta blood transfusions? What did Henrietta’s friends and family do when they found out that she needed blood? Why do you think they were willing to sacrifice to help her?

What was Henrietta’s final request? What does this request tell you about her?

Why did Henrietta’s doctors need to ask for her family’s 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?

Explain how a neutralization test is used to determine a vaccine’s efficacy. What unusual characteristics of HeLa cells made them ideal for use in the polio vaccine trials?

Why did the Tuskegee Institute become involved in the mass production of HeLa cells? How involved was the Institute?

Read & explanation of how a virus reproduces (page 97). Why did the fact that HeLa cells are malignant make them particularly useful in the study of viruses?

Why was the development of methods of freezing cells an important scientific breakthrough?

Why did scientists want to be able to clone cells for research? Explain the contribution that HeLa made to the emerging field of genetics.

Describe the role Microbiological Associates played in the development of the field of cell culture, and the industry of selling HeLa cells and other human biological materials.

Do you agree with Pomerant’s suggestion that Gey should have “finished his own research” before releasing HeLa to the general public? In what ways, if any, did Gey personally profit from the development of HeLa?

How soon after Henrietta’s death did the media attempt to write about her?

What reasons did Berg give for wanting information about the woman whose cells were used to grow HeLa? How did TeLinde, Gey, and others at Johns Hopkins respond to Berg’s request? Why did they respond this way?

Summarize the various factual errors that appeared in the stories about HeLa.

Why didn’t Henrietta’s family know that her cells were still alive? Do you think that learning of HeLa soon after Henrietta’s death might have changed her family members’ lives? Why?

What questions did Deborah have about her mother & sister? Why do you think no one told her very much about them?