Henrietta Lacks’ Family Settles Over Research Use Of Her Cancer Cells
The cells, known as HeLa, had "remarkable properties" allowing endless reproduction for medical research purposes, NPR explains, but they were taken without Henrietta Lacks' consent in 1950s. The settlement was reached with her family on what would have been her 103rd birthday.
NPR:
Henrietta Lacks' Family Reaches Settlement Over Use Of Her 'Stolen' Cells
The family of Henrietta Lacks has reached a settlement with a science and technology company that it says used cells taken without Lacks' consent in the 1950s to develop products it later sold for a profit. ... Those cells — now known as HeLa cells — had remarkable properties that allowed them to be endlessly reproduced, and they have since been used for a variety of scientific breakthroughs, including research about the human genome and the development of the polio and COVID-19 vaccines. (Hernandez, 8/1)
The Boston Globe:
Family Of Henrietta Lacks And Waltham-Based Thermo Fisher Settle Lawsuit Over Use Of HeLa Cells
Lacks’s cells were taken at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1951 when she underwent treatment for cervical cancer. They were eventually used to create a cell line named after her, HeLa (pronounced hee-la). It is the most prolific and widely used human cell line in biology. Thermo Fisher said in an unsuccessful motion to dismiss the suit in January that among its more than 100,000 products, “a handful are HeLa-related.” But it said HeLa cells were first commercialized by others almost immediately after a Johns Hopkins researcher obtained them. (Saltzman, 8/1)
Stat:
What Henrietta Lacks Settlement Says About Racism In Medicine
For what would have been Henrietta Lacks’s 103th birthday, her family got her some justice: A settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific over the Massachusetts-based company’s use of cells obtained without her consent seven decades ago. The story of Lacks, a Black woman whose cells have contributed to scientific breakthroughs ranging from the development of polio and cancer treatments to the mapping of the human genome, is one of the best-known tales of the exploitation of marginalized groups in the name of medical progress. (Merelli, 8/1)
The Conversation:
Who Was Henrietta Lacks? Here’s How HeLa Cells Became Essential To Medical Research
In an amazing twist of fate, the aggressive cervical cancer tumor that killed Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year old African American mother, became an essential tool that helped the biomedical field flourish in the 20th century. As a cancer researcher who uses HeLa cells in my everyday work, even I sometimes find it hard to believe. On Aug. 1, 2023, over 70 years after doctors took Lacks’ cells without her consent or knowledge, her family reached a settlement with biotech company Thermo Fisher. Lacks’ descendants had sued the company in 2021 for making billions of dollars off her cells. The family has not been previously been compensated. (Martinez, 8/1)
