Unconsented Sacrifice: Henrietta Lacks, Hela Cells, and the Shaping of Modern Medicine

Today's story begins in 1951 with the life-transforming journey of Henrietta Lacks, a young African American woman and mother of five from a tobacco farm in Virginia. Diagnosed with an aggressive form of cervical cancer, she underwent treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Here, unbeknownst to her, a biopsy of her cancer cells was taken, an act reflective of the era's lack of standard informed consent practices. Henrietta's unique cancer cells, later known as HeLa cells, ...