Henrietta Lacks and Biomedical Ethics

Who was Henrietta Lacks?

• Henrietta Lacks was a Black tobacco farmer. She lived in the USA.
• She is known for being the source of the HeLa cells.
• She died of cervical cancer when she was 31 years old.

What are HeLa cells?

• Researchers had been faced with miserable failures when it came to growing human cells in petri dishes. These cells failed to divide and multiply for long.
• In 1951, the cells of Henrietta Lacks were found to possess a remarkable property. They were capable of growing outside her body and dividing rapidly. Their numbers doubled nearly every day.
• Eventually, her cells were used for developing an ‘immortal cell line’ i.e. cells capable of dividing indefinitely, outside the human body. These came to be called ‘HeLa