Chapter 31: “Hela, Goddess of Death” 1. What does Deborah say about people who frame her mother’s story as a story about racism? (See p. 250) She feels that the story is not a race issue. She says, “We all black and white and everything else—this isn’t a race thing. There’s two sides to the story, and that’s what we want to bring out.”
2. Contrast the experience Henrietta’s great-grandchildren, Alfred and Davon, have at the Maryland Science Center with the experience Deborah, Sonny, and Lawrence had growing up. (See p. 251) They have pride in the knowledge that their great-grandmother’s cells made her famous. Deborah, Sonny, and Lawrence did not grow up knowing anything about scientists’ use of the cells.
3. How did Skloot finance the research for her book? What did she promise to do for the Lacks family if and when the book was published? (See p. 251) Skloot paid for the research with credit cards and student loans. She promised that if the book was published, she would set up a scholarship fund for descendants of Henrietta Lacks.
4. Explain why it would be easy to believe that the Marvel super villain, Hela, Goddess of Death, was based on Henrietta Lacks. (See pp. 254-55) She is a character who is half black and half white; half dead and half alive—traits that describe the actual Henrietta and the cells. The Hela character has superhuman strength and godlike stamina which aptly describe the HeLa cells. However, it was based on an ancient Norse goddess of death.
5. Describe the relationship between Deborah and her grandson Davon. (See p. 255) Davon watched over Deborah. Deborah took 14 pills a day, and she often slept at odd times because of it. Davon felt he needed to stay with her 24/7 to help her after she took her medicine.
6. Who is Franklin Salisbury Jr., and why did he contact Deborah? (See p. 257) Salisbury is the president of the National Foundation for Cancer Research. In 2001, he decided to hold the foundation’s conference Henrietta’s honor and wanted Deborah to speak and to accept a plaque in her mother’s honor.
7. Why did Deborah decide to go see her mother’s cells? What obstacle almost kept her from doing so? (See pp. 257-58) She wanted to see the cells and try to learn as much as she could to understand what scientists would be talking about at the conference. She almost didn’t go because her son Alfred was arrested for robbing five liquor stores at gunpoint. The police arrested him in front of his house while his son Little Alfred watched.
Chapter 32: “All That’s My Mother”
1. Compare and contrast Skloot’s, Deborah’s, and Zakariyya’s interactions with the Jesus statue at Johns Hopkins. What do these interactions reveal about their attitudes toward religious faith? (See p. 260) Skloot watched as others approached the statue to pray. She touched the toe herself and claimed it was the closest she had ever come to praying. Deborah came up and said an actual prayer, while Zakariyya laughed at Deborah saying, “He can’t do nothing to help you now.” Their interactions reveal Deborah’s own deep faith, Zakariyya’s anger, even at God, and Skloot’s skepticism but willingness to acknowledge the faith of others.
2. . Analyze the way that Christoph Lengauer interacts with the Lacks family. Why do you think his interaction is so different from anyone the Lackses encountered at Johns Hopkins up until this point? (See pp. 261-67) Lengauer is honest and respectful. He acknowledged the family’s difficulty in the past and treated them as they should have been previously. He showed them the cells and explained the science behind it without being condescending.
3. What is Lengauer’s attitude toward the HeLa contamination problem? What belief of Deborah’s does his attitude affirm? (See p. 262) He understands how HeLa contamination can ruin other cell lines and explained how her cell contamination caused millions of dollars of damage. He said it was “poetic justice.” Deborah said, “You don’t mess with Henrietta. She’ll sic HeLa on your a**!” Her statement affirms her belief that Henrietta still has power over her cells.
4. Describe the way that Deborah and Zakariyya interact with their mother’s cells. (See pp. 262-64) Both of them seem to be in awe of the cells. Deborah takes a cold vial and tries to warm it up because she worried her mother was cold. She kisses the vial and tells her mother that she is famous, but that nobody knows it yet.
5. What important misunderstanding about HeLa does Lengauer clarify for Deborah? (See p. 265) He explains to her the difference between cell types and the basics of how chromosomes make up the DNA. Deborah knew she could inherit traits from her mother, and she worried that she would inherit the cancer. He explained to her that Henrietta’s cancer was from HPV, the genital warts virus. He told her that children don’t inherit those kinds of changes in DNA from their parents.
6. What does Lengauer believe about the Lackses’ right to be financially compensated for the sale of their mother’s cells? (See p. 267) He said they should get money. He feels that valuable cells should be treated like oil. “When you find oil on somebody’s property, it doesn’t automatically belong to them, but they do get a portion of the profits” (267).
7. Why do you think Deborah tells Skloot that she “just witnessed a miracle”? (See p. 267) Instead of showing anger at the cells and those involved in using them, Zakariyya thanked Lengauer and Skloot and touched them on the back.
Chapter 33: “The Hospital for the Negro Insane”
1. Does the title of this chapter evoke an emotional response from you? Why do you think Skloot chose this title? (See p. 268) It sounds so harsh and insensitive. It shows how words have power, and it’s a reminder of the many abuses that have occurred against people who’ve been labeled and treated as less than a person due to their disabilities or differences.
2. Compare the connotations of the name “Crownsville” with the name “Hospital for the Negro Insane.” What do you think the directors were trying to achieve when they renamed the facility? (See p. 269) The name Crownsville suggests that the residents would be treated royally rather than abused and discarded, which is apparently how the “Negro Insane” were treated in the first half of the 20th century.
3. Why did Deborah and Skloot travel to Crownsville? (See p. 268) They came to Crownsville to find out what happened to Deborah’s sister Elsie.
4. Why was Skloot surprised by the appearance of Crownsville? What do you think she expected to find? (See p. 269) Crownsville consisted of 1,200 acres of green manicured lawns, walking paths, weeping cherry trees, and picnic tables. The porch had white columns and wide chairs and chandeliers. She didn’t expect to find such grandeur and elegance.
5. Who is Paul Lurz? Which comments of his foreshadow that something terrible happened to Elsie? (See p. 270) He was the hospital’s director of performance and improvement. He had majored in history and was also a social worker. His mentions that there wasn’t much money for treating blacks in the 40’s and 50’s and that the hospital wasn’t a nice place to be back then, which suggests that Elsie had not been treated well.
6. Why were the hospital’s medical records from the 1950s and earlier disposed of? (See p. 271) The records were disposed of because the place had a serious asbestos problem. Instead of cleaning each page, the records were bagged and buried.
7. What part of Elsie’s medical records did Lurz have? Why had he saved patients’ medical records? Why was he surprised that he had Elsie’s records in particular? (See p. 272) Her autopsy report. He had been an intern at Crownsville and had been there since 1964. Due to his love of history, he would save potentially historic documents. He was surprised because between 1910 when the hospital opened and the late 50’s when records were found to be contaminated, tens of thousands of patients had been admitted, and his records represented only a fraction of all of the records.
8. Skloot carefully describes the photograph of Elsie. What specific things can you infer about Elsie’s treatment based on the description of the photograph? (See pp. 272-73) Her hair is unkempt; her eyes are bruised and nearly swollen shut, which indicates physical abuse or neglect. Her face was misshapen, her nostrils were ringed with mucous, and her lips were twice the size. Her expression seems to be one of misery and pain as she appears to screaming. In contrast, the white hands around Elsie’s neck are manicured and well cared for. The picture is quite a contrast as well to the beautiful girl that Henrietta first brought to the hospital. The records indicate that she killed herself by inducing vomiting.
9. How does Deborah demonstrate that she is in control when her right to view Elsie’s records is questioned? (See p. 274) She “stared him in the eye” and brought out her birth certificate, Elsie’s birth certificate, and she showed proof of the power of attorney over Elsie.
10. Describe conditions at the hospital during the time period when Elsie was a patient there. (See pp. 274-76) They find a Washington Post article from 1958, written three years after Elsie’s death, with the headline, “Overcrowded Hospital ‘Loses’ Curable Patients: Lack of Staff at Crownsville Pushes them to Chronic Stage.” The reality was worse than they imagined. When Elsie was there, the hospital was overcrowded and short-staffed. There was only 1 doctor for nearly 225 patients, and the death rate was higher than the discharge rate. Patients were locked in cells with drains in the floor instead of toilets. They were put together regadless of gender or criminal history, thereby inviting abuse. Often research was conducted on patients like Pneumoencephalography which involved “drilling holes in to the skulls of research subjects, draining the fluid surrounding their brains, and pumping air or helium into the skull in place of the fluid to allow crisp X-rays of the brain through the skull. The side effects—crippling headaches, dizziness, seizures, vomiting—lasted until the body refilled the skull with spinal fluid, which usually took two to three months.” Surprisingly, this practice, which caused brain damage and epilepsy, went on until it was outlawed in the 70’s. It was likely that Elsie was one of the research subjects during this time.
11. Compare and contrast the medical research likely performed on Elsie with Gey’s research and Southam’s research. Does some medical research seem “more wrong”? Why do you think you feel that way? (See pp. 275-76) Gey’s research used tissue taken from patients that would have been thrown away. Gey’s research was not inhumane like the procedure of pneumoencephalagraphy or even Southam’s research in which in infected victims with cancer cells. Both Southam and the medical research done on the patients and Crownsville were performed without the patients’ consent. Even though Gey did not get informed consent from the patients whose cells he used, he was not harming the patients. Certainly, Gey’s seems less wrong than the others, but it is still the same philosophy that doctors have a right to use patients without their knowledge or consent.
12. What does Deborah’s comment to Lurz that “if you gonna go into history, you can’t do it with a hate attitude” tell you about the type of person she is? (See p. 276) She is filled with a desire to know at all costs and is forgiving of the past in hopes of a better future.
13. How did Deborah initially react to the news about her sister? How did her reaction evolve after she had a chance to dwell on the picture and process the disturbing information that she had been given? (See pp. 276-77) Deborah is initially so happy to get any information about her sister that even though she feels like her sister needed her, she doesn’t let the horror initially touch her. She later feels tortured by the information. She obsessively looks at the picture and begins behaving erratically.
14. Skloot ends this chapter with Deborah deciding to finally give her access to Henrietta’s medical records. Explain why this moment is significant. (See p. 278) This is significant because Deborah finally trusts that Skloot will use the information in a trustworthy manner.
Chapter 34: “The Medical Records”
1. How does Deborah respond when Skloot suggests photocopying some of Henrietta’s records? Why do you think she responds this way? (See pp. 279-80) Deborah refuses to let Skloot make photocopies. She doesn’t want the copies falling into the wrong hands. She may be trusting Skloot, but she doesn’t trust others.
2. How can you tell that Elsie’s photograph and autopsy are deeply troubling to Deborah? (See p. 282) She spends the time while Skloot is reading the medical records staring at and commenting on the photo and worrying over whether or not she lost the autopsy report.
3. What causes the confrontation between Deborah and Skloot? How is it resolved? (See pp. 282-84) They have a misunderstanding about a word used in Elsie’s autopsy report. Deborah was already upset over the use of the word “idiocy” to describe Elsie. This other word is even more upsetting, and Deborah asks Skloot not to use the word in the book. Skloot tells her she won’t use the word and smiles because she believes that it’s sweet that Deborah wants to protect Elsie, and because she never would have put the word in the book anyway, so it’s an easy promise to make. However, it’s that smile that makes Deborah angry and distrustful, and she screams at and pushes Skloot. Skloot loses her temper and screams back, which calms Deborah down. It’s almost as if having Skloot show emotion causes Deborah to see her as more human.
4. What reason does Deborah give for not wanting Skloot to type out Henrietta’s records word-for-word? (See p. 284) Deborah wants to try to keep part of the information private, only for the family.
5. Why do you think Deborah breaks out in hives after visiting Crownsville and giving Skloot access to the medical records? (See p. 284) Both actions were extremely stressful for her.