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Willamette Week:
Rebecca Skloot:
WW: Within the first three chapters, you become a character within this book At what point in the course of your reporting did you realize it would be impossible to tell this story without including yourself?
Rebecca Skloot:
WW: it goes against every instinct of yours as a reporter
WW: What is it like to report a story for a decade?
WW: Your account of your first trip to Baltimore made me really panicky.
WW: United States District Court Judge Robert Sweet just ruled last week that Myriad Genetics doesn't have the right to patent BRCA 1 and 2, a pair of genes linked to breast cancer. Could you tell my readers and me what we are to make of the decision in light of Henrietta Lacks' story?
scientists
WW: In your opinion, is there any sort of "best practices" measures that medical science could take to prevent the sort of family trauma that occurred to the Lackses?
they can't get health insurance
WW: How do we go about bridging the unfathomable educational gap between these doctors and their patients?
There is no translator for science.
SEE IT: Rebecca Skloot reads from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks at Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651, powells.com. 7:30 pm Monday, April 12. Also at OHSU's Old Library Auditorium at 4 pm Tuesday, April 13. Free tickets available here.
WWeek 2015