Family of woman whose cells changed science settle case

Henrietta Lacks’ ‘HeLa’ cells became a cornerstone of modern medicine but her family had never been compensated.

Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer at a racially segregated hospital in Baltimore. Picture: The Lacks family

The family of a black woman whose cancer cells were taken without consent in 1951 before being used in a series of medical innovations has settled a lawsuit with a biotechnology company that profited from the material.

Henrietta Lacks, 31, was dying of cervical cancer at a racially segregated hospital in Baltimore when doctors removed tissue from her tumour. It was the first instance of human cells being successfully cloned and the material has been reproduced infinitely since, with her “HeLa” cells ­becoming a cornerstone of modern medicine. They have enabled scientific innovations including the creation of vaccines for polio and Covid-19.

The Lacks family and Thermo Fisher Scientific reached a confidential settlement in the case, originally filed in 2021 in the federal district court in Baltimore. A news briefing on Tuesday ­announcing the agreement ­landed on Lacks’s birthday.

“I can think of no better present on what would’ve been Henrietta Lacks’s 103rd birthday than to give her family some measure of respect for Henrietta Lacks, some measure of dignity for Henrietta Lacks and, most of all, some measure of justice for Henrietta Lacks 70 years later, ” lawyer Ben Crump said.

The settlement is the latest ­development in a story that has come to represent the legacy of mistrust of the scientific and medical establishment within minority communities whose bodies have been used without their consent, and the need for transparency in science.

Lacks sought treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1951. She died that October. During her treatment, researchers took cells from her tumour sample without her knowledge or consent. Sent to a lab, her HeLa cells proved unique and invaluable for scientific research. While growing human cells in a lab is often difficult, Lacks’s cells remained alive and kept replicating.

Lacks’s family was unaware about the use of her cells until the 1970s. They never received compensation stemming from the money earned by companies using the cells, lawyers representing Lacks’s family said in their complaint against Thermo Fisher.

The 2010 best-selling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot detailed the case. A film adaptation of the book, starring Oprah Winfrey, aired on HBO in 2017.

Lawyers representing Lacks’s family argued in an amended complaint, filed in 2022, that Thermo Fisher profits from the HeLa cell line without compensating her estate. They brought the lawsuit under a claim of unjust enrichment, saying the company continues to benefit from the cells.

“Black people have the right to control their bodies,” the lawyers wrote.

“And yet Thermo Fisher Scientific treats Henrietta Lacks’ cells as chattel to be bought and sold.”

Lawyers for Thermo Fisher had sought to dismiss the case, saying the statute of limitations had passed. They also said the commercial use of HeLa cells was legal.

Lawyers for both parties said on Tuesday they were pleased to have resolved the case.

In 2020, two entities that benefited from Lacks’s cells ­announced donations to the Henrietta Lacks Foundation.

Johns Hopkins, meanwhile, has said it has worked with members of Lacks’s families over the past decade to honour her legacy. That work includes scholarships and annual symposia, as well as plans for a building named in her honour.

The institution said it “has never sold or profited from the discovery or distribution of HeLa cells and does not own the rights to the HeLa cell line”.

The Wall Street Journal