Family of black woman hailed as ‘mother of modern medicine’ to sue company for ‘stealing her cells’

Relatives of Henrietta Lacks say US biotech company took her cervical cells without consent and made huge profits from them

'MOTHER OF MODERN MEDICINE': Henrietta Lacks circa 1945-50. She died of an aggressive cervical cancer and her cells have been used in research without consent or compensation to the family according to their lawyers

THE FAMILY of an African American  woman whose cervical cells were taken from her seventy years ago without her knowledge or consent, are to sue a pharmaceutical company it alleges profited from her stolen tissue.

Henrietta Lacks was a young mother who died in 1951 after  being diagnosed with cervical cancer.

During surgery, a sample of her cells was taken from the tumour and sent to a laboratory where they were found to be the first living human cells ever to survive and multiply outside the human body.  

The cells taken from Lacks are known as HeLa cells and have been reproduced ever since, used in scientific and medical innovations including the development of the polio vaccine and gene mapping.

LAWSUIT: Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, and the family of Henrietta Lacks raise their fists after a news conference last week

The HeLa cell line became the first human cells successfully cloned and have since been used for research in nearly every area of modern medicine including the development of the polio vaccine, chemotherapy, gene-mapping, IVF and cloning.

The Lacks family have publicly announced their intention to sue biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific.  

‘Racially unjust medical system’

They say the company commercially exploited Henrietta Lacks’ cells which were taken by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951 where she was being treated for cervical cancer without her knowledge or consent as part of “a racially unjust medical system.”

The lawsuit alleges that “In the last several years Thermo Fisher  Scientific has made staggering profits in the tens of millions of dollars by using the HeLa cell line  – all while Ms Lacks’ estate and family haven’t seen a dime of it.”

The family is being represented by civil rights lawyer Ben Crump who also represented the families of George Floyd, Michael Brown after their deaths.

TRIBUTE: Henrietta Lacks Statue, University of Bristol which was unveiled last week

“It is outrageous that this company would think that they have intellectual rights property to their grandmother’s cells” Crump said during a news conference. “Why is it they have intellectual rights to her cells and can benefit billions of dollars when her family, her flesh and blood, her black children, get nothing?”

Lacks’ cells were harvested and developed long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today, but lawyers for her family say Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, has continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known.

While acknowledging the concerns of the family in a statement Johns Hopkins said that at the time “there was no established practice for informing or obtaining consent from cell or tissue donors”.

One of Henrietta Lacks’ grandsons, Lawrence Lacks Jr., said the family is “united” behind the case.

‘Taking back control’


“It’s about time,” said another grandson, Ron Lacks. “Seventy years later, we mourn Henrietta Lacks, and we will celebrate taking back control of Henrietta Lacks’ legacy. This will not be passed on to another generation of Lackses.”

News of the lawsuit comes as a life-size bronze statue of Henrietta Lacks was unveiled in Bristol last week.

The statue, commissioned by the University of Bristol earlier this year, is the work of Bristol artist Helen Wilson-Roe. It is the first public statue of a black woman made by a black woman to be permanently installed in the UK.  

Members of the Lacks family at the statue’s unveiling last week

It follows the exhibiting of two of Helen’s portraits of Henrietta Lacks and Cllr Cleo Lake, Bristol’s first black female Lord Mayor, which have been on display in the Wills Memorial Building since October 2020.  

This year marks the 70th anniversary since Lacks’ untimely death in October 1951. 

The university is collaborating with the Lacks’ family-led HELA 100: The Henrietta Lacks Initiative, which began during her centennial year and features a worldwide education and advocacy tour.

Her son Lawrence Lacks, who was 17 when his mother passed away was present for the unveiling. He was joined by her grandson Alan Wilks and his wife Pam, granddaughter Jeri Lacks-Whye and great-granddaughters Victoria Baptiste and Veronica Robinson.

Jeri Lacks-Whye said: “As the world commemorates 70 years since Henrietta Lacks’ HeLa cells changed the world, we also reflect on my grandmother’s untimely passing. It is only fitting that she be memorialised to educate future generations on her legacy and the importance of advancing health equity and social justice for all. The Lacks Family is honoured to begin our HELA100 worldwide tour with the University of Bristol and Helen Wilson Roe for the unveiling of this historic statue.”

MILESTONE: Bristol artist Helen Wilson-Roe at work on the statue

Wilson-Roe said: “Henrietta’s statue will be the first public statue of a black woman made by a black woman in the UK and will be installed permanently on the University of Bristol campus. May our ancestors continue to show us the way to walk.

“As a child growing up in Bristol there were no statues of black women that I could identify with. So, knowing that my children and their grandchildren and great grandchildren will be able to see Henrietta’s statue, is just fantastic, especially at this time when Bristol is starting to address its past.”

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