An excerpt from Newsonyx -
Henrietta Lacks’ Family Will Sue Pharmaceutical Companies Who’ve Gotten Rich From Her Cells
Her HeLa cells have been used in research for decades without consent.
By Aziah Kamariby
 |
| Photo Courtesy of Baltimore Magazine (Mike Morgan) |
The family of Henrietta Lacks has hired a prominent civil rights attorney, Ben Crump, who plans to seek compensation for them from big pharmaceutical companies across the country that have made fortunes off medical research with the use of Lacks’ famous cells.
On January 29, 1951, doctors at The Johns Hopkins Hospital took a biopsy from Henrietta Lacks, who had an aggressive form of cervical cancer.
She died eight months later, but the tissue was taken without her consent eventually established the cell line HeLa. The cells were the first immortal human cells to live outside of the body and be grown in culture.
For the next 70 years, cells taken from Lacks are the most widely used human cells in scientific research and helped lead to a multitude of medical treatments and advances, including the COVID-19 vaccine. However, neither Lacks nor her family gave consent.
Now, her descendants seek compensation from big pharmaceutical companies that profited from HeLa cells, and they hired the infamous Crump to help them do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment