Henrietta Lacks’ Family Settles Lawsuit Over Stolen “HeLa” Cells
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The family of Henrietta Lacks has reached a settlement regarding cells stolen over 70 years ago. Descendants of Lacks, including her only surviving child Lawrence Lacks Sr., and biomedical equipment production company Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount.
On Tuesday (Aug. 1), what would have been Lacks’ 103rd birthday, civil rights and personal injury attorney Ben Crump of Ben Crump Law and the Lacks family shared the news, with special thanks to U.S. Congressmen Kweisi Mfume, Chris Van Hollen, and Ben Cardin for introducing the legislation to honor Lacks with the Congressional Gold Medal.
“The terms of the agreement will be confidential. The parties are pleased that they were able to find a way to resolve this matter outside of Court and will have no further comment about the settlement,” explained the statement.
The lawsuit, filed against Thermo Fisher in 2021 by Crump and attorney Chris Seeger of Seeger Weiss, claimed the company gained wealth from the cells stolen from Lacks in 1951, with the family excluded from any profits. According to the Associated Press, in the complaint, Lacks’ descendants argued the incident was an example of racist practices in the medical system.
“The exploitation of Henrietta Lacks represents the unfortunately common struggle experienced by Black people throughout history,” the lawsuit details.
Initially, Thermo Fisher claimed the statute of limitations expired. However, the Lacks family legal team argued the terms were irrelevant due to the continuous benefits the company gains from the use of the cells.
As detailed by PBS, Lacks cervical cancer cells, called “HeLa” for her first and last name, are immortal and continue to divide. Typically, cells divide around 40 to 60 times before they become too old and are naturally killed off. The special “HeLa” cells, taken during a biopsy without Lacks’ permission, have been used in medical advancements relating to polio, COVID-19 vaccines, sickle-cell anemia, cancer research, and the sequencing of the human genome.
Lacks’ story was documented in the bestselling book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by journalist Rebecca Skloot in 2010. In 2017, the work was made into an HBO movie, where Oprah Winfrey starred as Lacks’ granddaughter.
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