{"id":9261,"date":"2023-08-10T16:59:07","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T16:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=9261"},"modified":"2023-08-10T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T17:00:00","slug":"henrietta-lacks-family-settles-lawsuit-with-biotech-company-paving-the-way-for-more-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/10\/henrietta-lacks-family-settles-lawsuit-with-biotech-company-paving-the-way-for-more-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Henrietta Lacks\u2019 Family Settles Lawsuit with Biotech Company, Paving the Way for More Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Henrietta Lacks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By\u00a0Stacy M. Brown<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Courtesy of NNPA<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Living relatives of Henrietta Lacks have reached a confidential settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific, the multi-billion-dollar biotechnology company that has used regenerative cells taken from Lacks decades ago without her consent.<\/p>\n

The settlement sets a precedent, potentially leading to complaints seeking compensation and control of Lacks\u2019 cells, famously known as \u201cHeLa\u201d cells, the world\u2019s first cells capable of replicating outside the human body.<\/p>\n

Represented jointly by attorney Ben Crump, renowned for his advocacy for Black victims of police violence, and attorney Chris Seeger, known for leading significant class action lawsuits in U.S. history, the family called a news conference in Baltimore on Tuesday, August 1, which coincides with what would have been Lacks\u2019 103rd birthday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Crump and Seeger wrote in a news release.<\/p>\n

The Lacks family\u2019s lawsuit addressed a problem that had persisted for 70 years following the unlawful removal of Henrietta Lacks\u2019 cells while she was receiving cervical cancer treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital.<\/p>\n

The family argued that the cells rightfully belong to Lacks and that companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific should pay for using them in research and product development.<\/p>\n

In a 2022 interview, Crump called the situation \u201cindicative of the Black struggle for equality and respect in America. Because it\u2019s a racial justice issue when you think about it in the purest form,\u201d Crump asserted. \u201cThe children of Henry Ford, they\u2019re able to benefit from his contributions to the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thermo Fisher Scientific, in its defense, contended that Lacks\u2019 descendants waited too long to take legal action and that other companies worldwide also use HeLa cells without the family\u2019s consent.<\/p>\n

Lacks\u2019 cancer treatment in 1951 was unsuccessful, and she tragically succumbed to the disease a few months after her diagnosis.
\nFollowing her death, researchers at Johns Hopkins discovered that the cells sampled from Lacks\u2019 cervix could regenerate outside the human body.<\/p>\n

They shared those groundbreaking cells, which were instrumental in developing polio and COVID-19 vaccines and the world\u2019s most common fertility treatment.<\/p>\n

Crump has acknowledged that other companies besides Thermo Fisher Scientific sell Lacks\u2019 cells, and biotech companies and labs globally use them for various types of research. The family has signaled that they also may act against those companies.<\/p>\n

For decades, Lacks\u2019 contributions to science remained unrecognized.<\/p>\n

However, Maryland Democratic Rep. Kweisi Mfume and fellow Maryland Democrats U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin have introduced legislation seeking to award Lacks a Congressional Gold Medal posthumously.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers said the goal is to ensure her contributions are honored and acknowledged for generations, as the cells she unknowingly provided continue to benefit millions worldwide.<\/p>\n

Lacks\u2019 story has since become a best-selling book and, in 2017, Oprah Winfrey starred in the big-screen biopic, \u201cThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a real honor to have a family member that\u2019s genetic makeup is that important to the world,\u201d Lacks\u2019 grandson, Ron Lacks, said in an earlier interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people are profiting from her, and some of my family members can\u2019t even afford proper medical [care], you know, it\u2019s like she\u2019s on the auction block,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, as loving as my grandmother was, she would have definitely said, \u2018Well, what about [my] family?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Stacy M. Brown is the NNPA Newswire national senior correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Stacy M. Brown Courtesy of NNPA Living relatives of Henrietta Lacks have reached a confidential settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific, the multi-billion-dollar biotechnology company that has used regenerative cells taken from Lacks decades ago without her consent. The settlement sets a precedent, potentially leading to complaints seeking compensation and control of Lacks\u2019 cells, famously known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-9261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9264,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9261\/revisions\/9264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9261"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=9261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}