By: Grace Liu

On August 1, the family of Henrietta Lacks gathered at a news conference after they filed a lawsuit in 2021 against biotech company, Thermo Fisher Scientific, for using her cells without her knowledge or consent.

Lacks was a mother of five who died of cervical cancer in 1951 at 31. Then, doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, took a sample of her cells without her knowing.

Lacks’ cells were the first to reproduce in a lab outside of a body. And since Lacks’ cells kept on multiplying, researchers could use her cells to develop vaccines and treatments against polio, coronavirus, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and the flu.

Thermo Fisher was profiting off of Lacks’ cells, and there was a cell line named for her, HeLa.

Research using the HeLa cells has led to new treatments for diseases. According to the National Institutes of Health, the cells have been used by researchers around the world and have been cited in more than 110,000 scientific publications.

Lacks’ family was also not informed about her cells being used, and they did not find out about the cell line until 1973, over two decades after Lacks’ death.

The family then filed a lawsuit in Maryland in October 2021. Their lawsuit accused Thermo Fisher Scientific of selling the cells and trying to secure property rights on the products the cells had helped develop without compensating the family or getting their permission.

Lacks’ family said they are proud of her contribution to medical advancements, but are angry about how she was treated by the medical establishment. They also said that these frustrations had been compounded with the commercialization of her cells without her family’s consent.

The family’s lawsuit against Thermo Fisher said the company had “made staggering profits by using the HeLa cell line — all while Lacks’ Estate and family haven’t seen a dime.”

On August 1, Lacks’ 103rd birthday, the family reached a settlement with the biotech company. “It was a long fight, over 70 years, and Henrietta Lacks gets her day,” said one of Lacks’ grandsons, Alfred Lacks Carter Jr.

Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/science/henrietta-lacks-cells-lawsuit-settlement.html