Henrietta Lacks Family Receives a Settlement
Greetings Community,
On August 1st, after years of struggling, fighting and advocacy, the family of Henrietta Lacks received a settlement from cells that were taken from Henrietta Lacks without her permission or the knowledge of her family. Here's the link to the NPR story.
I will never forget turning the page from the best selling book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and realizing that I ‘knew’ Henrietta Lacks or at least I knew her cells, HeLa Cells (first 2 letters of her first name and first two letters of her last name). I had been using HeLa cells when I worked in the lab for years. In fact, HeLa cells proliferated so well that other cell lines could be ‘potentially contaminated’ with this cell line. We often kept HeLa cells in a separate incubator or even a separate lab. When we would receive cell lines from other sources, we would test them for HeLa cell ‘contamination’. The symbolism and irony of ‘separation’ continues to make me pause.
Finding out that working with cells that I didn't know were stolen from a Black woman's body and keeping them separate, because they grew so well, literally felt like a punch to the stomach. I had to put the book down and catch my breath. I can only imagine what her family felt when they realized that her cells had been taken without her or her family's permission and used for years to produce prominent therapies like vaccinations.
If you haven't had a chance to read the book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” By Rebecca Skloot, please consider it. There's also an HBO movie based on the book, starring Oprah Winfrey.
My hope is that the settlement to the family gives them some peace and comfort, that people continue to learn about this story and that, with current study safeguards and advocacy, communities of color can actively engage in the clinical trials process despite this tragic story.