>> you still got your mfa and didn't publish? >> i did on my coursework and left without finishing my thesis in a bar and said you're crazy, don't do that. is that i'm going to go to the book the way i feel like i have to do it and then i'll hand them to them

particularly white people and they just didn't trust anybody. you know, they have had so many bad experiences. henrietta's medical records were released to a journalist and published at one point in that book, conspiracy of cells, and trend. at one point someone came to them and said he was a lawyer and was going to sue on their behalf and then ended up trying to steal the mother's medical records. there were so many things that happened to them they didn't know who to trust and didn't believe anyone no matter what they said they were trying to do. so, you know, the very understandably were weary of me. and so it took a long time to sort of get them to dr. mansour to open a tiered >> and what did you learn from that? >> a lot. i think i'll probably figure out what i learned from them for years. you know, i was in my late twenties at that point and i didn't really know what i was

doing. >> probably safer. >> a lot of people say why did you keep going? several these roadblocks and i just wanted to do this thing and i thought it was sort of this site is that i was young and experience and was like no i'm just going to do this thing. i didn't understand how impossible the task was when i set out to do it. and so i think i learned so much. but i think one of the things i learned very early on was the importance of thinking about the impact that journalists have on people that they write about because a lot of their mistrust towards me was the ways in which they had sort of had that experiences in the past and writers have come and gone and had different effects on them. and so, i spent a lot of time thinking about that as i was trying to win their trust and thinking about what my duty was as a writer, sort of ethically speaking at one of the first things that i really thought a lot about was his idea of being

another person who came along and was going to benefit from this in ways that they might not. and i wanted from the beginning i felt like it was important for them -- for this to be something that could benefit them if it there was going to also benefit me. so i said from the beginning is going to set up a foundation, which i did. i sent up this henrietta lacks which is a scholarship on for descendents of henrietta lacks. some of the proceeds gone going and they hopefully will be able to get some scholarship money for school and hopefully some of her children to help them with health care. so that all came out of this sort of timeout seeing how traumatized they were an understanding that i was coming to them is another person who is part of that story and wanting to approach it in a way that wasn't going to be damaging for them. >> did johns hopkins willingly work with you on this boat?

>> yeah, they never try to hide anything. i had access to all the archives they are. and for them, this story has been out there and small versions for a long time, little newspaper articles, magazine stories have been published with just a nugget of the story. one in cells taken without permission. became big thing in science. i think in some source they were relieved so they could stop answering his questions over and over again from journalists and, did you take these cells without permission. but i think there was not an understanding of the whole scope of the story the way the children were used in research and so i think they are coming you know, a lot of people were learning -- have been learning from the book about the range of things that actually happen. >> rebecca skloot, did you talk to ancestors were to the doctrines of the type of cells? >> all of the above. >> is he still alive? >> yeah, her initial doctors 99

now. his name is howard jones and he is an incredibly important scientist, physician historically. he was behind the first test tube baby in the united states. he and his wife were some real pioneers in vitro fertilization and infertility research. so he was still alive and he remembered her case very vividly because it was unlike anything he'd ever seen. so i talked to him and also yes i spent a lot of time with henrietta's siblings and cousins who she grew up with a siblings. her husband was still alive. so a lot of extended dimly i spent time with. >> was there anything nefarious about taking -- the taking of the cells in 1951? >> no, there wasn't. i mean, this is something of a standard practice. there was absolutely no intention. there was nothing done to her. you know, they took the sample without asking. they could've never imagined what that could have led to.

you know, we didn't know what dna was so we didn't know someday someone will be able to look into those cells and went about her kids or grandkids or her creaky and kids. they no concept of the things with any money. none of that was even a remote possibility at that point. for them this was just about trying to grow cancer cells to cure cancer and there was no intention at all. >> they started selling those cells was there any discussion at johns hopkins about financial support for the family? >> now, and hopkins never sold them. they gave them away for free and they're sort of public domain. you could sell them if you wanted to. and mean, there's no pattern. they're just out there and anyone can grow them. and a scientist can grow them. >> had john hawkins patch didn't do what a few different story? >> absolutely, they would have profited from them. but in the 1950's you can pop

them. people didn't start passing cell lines and things until much later. so that's one of the sort of tough questions about the money issue is who -- people often not so has the family been given any money and the answer is no for a lot of reasons. one of which is it's impossible to really treat to me the money, how much money was made, how much of the money -- you can go online and some of our biggest biotech companies started off at this one company sterling said to herself. you can buy a file of hela cells and the products made using none anywhere after about $10,000 a vaio. but how much of that is the hela, how much is the science, people -- >> who owns he loved? their biological supply companies. >> so a lot of companies sell them? >> and there's nonprofitable banks to provide them and them

just as to keeping cells alive and going for science. yeah, anyone can fill them. and, you know, so that the questions, i have a tissues on file somewhere, a lot of them being used in research. , then turned into commercial products in some way. so the question is to the lack is a big one because if you give money to the rebecca skloot, what about the lives way of the others being used in research and where does that money come around part of this larger discussion that is happening about who should be profiting parts of the human body and who should have control over that? in a a lot of ways is becoming part of the health care debate because so much of our future edison drugs and testing and everything else starts with research on human cells that are taken from people, ought to do

without them really realizing it and then commercialized. they are taken from people, turning to cement to the before them. so it's becoming part of the health care debate about who should have access. >> how do hela cells different stem cells for >> hela cells or cancer cells and stem cells aren't. they can grow into other kinds of cells and hela cells are cervical cancer cells so they're a specific kind of cell. that you can now science ways you can alter hela cells turn them into other cells which is asserted that is sort of amazing. so scientists have the ability to take a hela so he is like a hard sell or something else. so in some ways they have -- they have behaviors that sound like themselves but they can't sort of become something else themselves.

and also there just, cells or if they have extremely abnormal dna and a half -- so a lot about them is -- >> where do the kids live and what do they do? >> they live in baltimore and they are mostly unemployed. several of them are unemployed. one of her sons drives a truck. he was laid off from the bethlehem steel there a while ago. so he's -- he does short and occasionally long-haul trucking up and down the east coast. and they're in their 60's and 70's. >> du jour book, "the mmortal life of henrietta lacks" bring them media attention or have they avoided the limelight? >> there is the immediate interests, but it sort of picking and choosing what they do. they were yeah pics six, away with their article or an speak

for themselves and that people hear them. one of the things that's been happening with the story is that, you know, i worked on this for over a decade and there was quite a while where they were like yeah right, you're never going to finish this book. and then when i did finish it, there was the sense among her kids and nobody was going to read it and nobody was going to care because that's been their experience for all their lives. and so for them, you know, the media coverage and, you know, they come to a lot of my book events book events as i've been on the october and the responses are really amazing for them as if is dating. and for her children, the story of how much been about what to get recognition for another her mother and what happened to her in the offing in a lot of ways i think they haven't really thought that much about the story in terms of the cells and what they experience. and in a lot of ways the book is

about them and the research on them and the fact they went through something in some ways much more traumatizing than what happened to their. and i think one of the things that has happened is they're now able to own their story a bit more because people are coming to them and saying i'm sorry for what she went through an thank d thank you foremothers contribution to science and math meant the world to them. >> today with a doctor even think about taking cells without telling the patient or getting permission or do they still do that? >> it depends on how the cells are taken. so what happened to the family in the 70's, a researcher going to a person specifically for tissues for research couldn't happen. today there's a federal law that says if you go to prison just to take tissues for research you have to ask. and you are doing. this is and as triathletes is that i have tissues anyway he is

that. and then your name is stripped off of those, they're often put into a bank and then if a research wants to do these has become fashion because the research on a human being. it's preserved on a a part of them that are detached from their name and identity. >> is that kind of controversial? >> particularly since the argument and those are anonymous samples that can never be tracked back to the person. but of course now we do have the ability to find a persons identity using dna. it's not something that done very often but it's technically possible. the 10 years from now at this anonymous cells are going to tell you about a person, no one can imagine that. but also just beyond that, there's a sticker issue of just people want to know what's being done with their dna and tissue there have been lawsuits over this and i talked to a lot of people involved in across-the-board this is the same thing, which is what the lacks family says as well. if they asked us, we would've said yes. don't want to inhibit science. people understand this is

important research. is that after the fact that this has been done with the tissues they don't have know about, they're being commercialized,, that's that they get angry and start yelling like something that is going on. the macarthur other henrietta lacks out there? >> in a lot of ways there's billions of them, we just don't know what their names are, what their stories are. one of the interesting things that happened since the book came out as i've been getting e-mails from scientists. the scientists response to the hela story is really incredible. there is so many scientists who work with herself everyday and have their whole careers and never saw to ask where they came from or they learned that they came from or donated from a woman. and one of the things that's been happening as i've been getting these e-mails from scientists and thank you for the story, if you support that with the from and i worked a lot with line. are you aware that came from a advising getting all these e-mails is this thing please tell me about this outline them what the story is.

if you go to the solving of the week and i felt you can scroll through the catalog will say things like-year-old african-american male disorders such as or 12-year-old caucasian female side of lymphoma. the sometimes you get these little snippets of their stories, but nothing beyond that. and a lot of scientists are sorted out they to that person get patient? probably not. and what do we know about them. so the story at henrietta lacks is this window into these other syllables. >> you see a broader book on the horizon? >> no. no, i don't think you could. i mean, the thing that's different about henrietta story bothers other people is that her name was released. so we know who she is, but yeah, privacy concerns would keep you from other releasing the names of any of those other cell lines or anything like that. so yeah, they're sort of know --

they're pretty of my friends is a great night of spend the rest of your life writing books about each of the cell lines. i said no, i'm not. and really the stories would not be the same because part of what they do henrietta lacks story so amazing and sort of impactful is what happened after the cells were taken. it's really in a lot of ways about the family and the aftermath of the cells. which did happen to anyone that is nobody else got a phone call thing your mother's house are still led 25 years after she died and went to research on you. so a lot of the stories would have been after. >> this book is really taken off. when the booktv producer bob mentor editorial meeting to discuss it, the whole group said what is the story? we have to know the story. >> which is the same reaction i had when i first heard it. and this is one of things people often say. aren't you shocked that people are responding to the book the way they are and i just blown away to see this book, a science

book of cells in "the new york times" bestseller list? it's like writers really are supposed to say they imagine something like this could happen, but it doesn't surprise me because i had the exact same reaction among us is having. it's a basic facts of the stories are so incredible. you hear them and just go with? i have to know what happened in to tell people about that. and a what i said when i heard it. circulate to what taken off is very much about the story and the fact that the furthest thing because it's the facts of the stories people are responding to. >> where do you live, what's your day job in word you to grow up? >> i live in memphis, tennessee. having teaching at the university and the faculty of the creative writing program. i grew up in portland, oregon and have lived in lots of

places. i was to undergraduate school in fort collins, colorado democrats going to birkenau lived in new york are at a moved around a lot. >> why biology class what interested you about biology class >> is actually free to the vast countryside is one of those kids was completely obsessed with the most time i was five i was going to be a veterinarian. so i was attack about that is as good as he you do for you if you are is that he is a good or if you have is that it is as good as he is to live in a universe with her.

a lot of that has to do is because henrietta has