Kilbourn Public Library Book Club

The Kilbourn Public Library Book Club chose The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot for June. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a fascinating and moving story of medicine and family. Henrietta Lacks was a mother of five in Baltimore, a poor African American migrant from the tobacco farms of Virginia, who died from a cruelly aggressive cancer at the age of 30 in 1951. A sample of her cancerous tissue turns out to provide human cells that could survive--even thrive--in the lab. Known as HeLa cells, their stunning potency gave scientists a building block for countless breakthroughs, beginning with the cure for polio.

Rebecca Skloot's book also gives us the rest of the story, the part that could have easily remained hidden had she not spent ten years unearthing it: Who was Henrietta Lacks? How did she die? Did her family know that she'd become, in some sense, immortal, and how did that affect them?

Due to her patience with the Lacks family, Skloot was able to write this book. What do you think about her ability to persist in this project?

When HeLa cells started to be sold, do you think Dr. Gey should have stepped in to assure that Henrietta Lacks' family was compensated in some way? Do you think they should be compensated at all?