More than 70 years after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a biotechnology company they sued in 2021, accusing its leaders of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system.
And let’s not forget her cells are the foundation of modern vaccine research, without them we’d still have waves of Polio and who knows what else. Even outside of the financial aspect we owe a lot to Henrietta Lacks as a species.
And it is beyond cruel that she was used like a lab rat, like many Black Americans have been through the country’s history. It’s not about the degree of harm, IMO, sure they didn’t cut off her arms, but she was a systematic victim of our medical industry and given no compensation or credit for the advancements in global medicine during her time.