The Story of Henrietta Lacks
14:35
Grades: 3 - 8

Video Description: The “Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is a touching, yet shocking tale of a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells, taken without her knowledge, ultimately influenced almost every aspect of medicine today. As scientists often point out, if you’ve taken anything stronger than an aspirin, you can probably thank Henrietta. The book is a New York Times bestseller, but many who read its pages are often left with many questions about the family, medical ethics and racial and privacy issues. We talk with Henrietta’s granddaughter and great-granddaughter about the book, Henrietta and the soon to be made HBO movie based on this book.

Type of Video: Interview*
Unique Video ID: Literature-35**

Quick Ideas for Using the Video:

  • After viewing the video, engage students in a discussion of the life of Henrietta Lacks and the actions of the medical community then. Do they believe such events could happen again? What is their view of the Lacks family story?

 

*Interviews feature extended conversation exploring fascinating topics with fascinating people in the area of study.

**The unique Video ID can be used to quickly locate a single video in the ET collection. This search function is designed to let teachers assign students to watch a specific video and have only that video appear as a search result. Just click on Search and choose “By Video ID.” Then type in the Video ID as it appears above. Be sure to include the dash.

Loading