The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacksdetails the experience of how Henrietta's cells were taken by a physician without her information or consent, and subsequently underwent research and testing, the results of which has significantly advanced healthcare treatments around the world. Both legal and ethical considerations are discussed.

In many instances throughout the book, while there was not a law in place (at the time) to direct certain activities of the physicians and the researchers, there were codes of ethics, and in most cases, the physicians and researchers knew the effects of withholding certain information from patients and the ethical implications of their actions. Discuss some of these legal/ethical interplays that the book discusses. Does your feelings on some of these instances change depending on whether the individual is a treating physician or a researcher? Does the physician or researcher's intent behind not disclosing, or in some cases, deliberately misrepresenting certain motives, change your judgment as to their actions?