WASHINGTON: Henrietta’s family does not have, a black woman whose cells are harvested without her knowledge, used for some medical breakthroughs, announcing plans Thursday to demand a profitable pharmaceutical giant from the discoveries.
In 1951, a 31-year-old did not have, a mother of five years, died of cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
During an attempt to treat it, cells from the tumors have been taken and transmitted to a researcher without his knowledge and used for decades without his family’s knowledge.
“So far too long, family shortages have been exploited, family shortages have been utilized.
And we say no, no longer.
No longer,” said his grandson Alfred Carter.
“So a pharmaceutical company: You are noticed.” Family deficiencies have maintained a prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who has represented the relatives of many Africans who were killed in incidents with police, including those loved by George Floyd.
“Black life must be rewarded in America,” said Crump, announced he would file a complaint on October 4 to mark a 70-year anniversary of the disputed sample.
Not having cells, dubbed HELA cells, has enabled laboratories throughout the world to develop vaccines, especially against polio, as well as cancer care and certain cloning techniques, an industry worth billions of dollars.
His family first discovered how much he had helped medical science in the 1970s, and only understood his legacy thanks to Rebecca Soppoot, who wrote Best-Seller 2010 “Eternal life that Henrietta did not have.” “They treat it like a specimen, like a lab mouse,” said his grandson Kimberly said.
COLLEGA CRUMP’s Christopher Seger said complaints would target any company that “received a profit of the use of” cells and had not reached an agreement to compensate the family.
Both CRUMP and SEEGER named specific companies are expected to look for legal action.
In 2013, it has no descendants of reaching an agreement with the University of Johns Hopkins for two family members to sit on the committee responsible for ratifying the use of HELA cells in the future.
But the agreement does not include compensation.
Johns Hopkins Hospital said that it had never been sold or benefited from the discovery or distribution of HELA cells, and did not have the right to them.