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Black and white photo of Henrietta Lacks smiling, wearing a white blouse and dark suit jacket. Hands on her hips. Behind her, a brick wall.
Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant, 1920-1951) smiling, posing with her hands on her hips.

Johns Hopkins physicians extract cancerous cells from Henrietta Lacks for medical research without her consent.

1951

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Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant, 1920-1951) smiling, posing with her hands on her hips.

Lacks, a 31-year-old African-American woman receiving treatment for cancer, has cells extracted without her knowledge or consent. These become known as the HeLa cell line, and the cultured cells are still used in research today. The cells have become: "the most widely used cell line in biological research and...contribute to major breakthroughs, like the advent of the polio vaccine" (Lanese, 2021).

In 2013, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will arrive at an agreement with the family to identify appropriate acknowledgement. As of the time of this writing, the family has yet to receive any compensation, while pharmaceutical companies make millions of dollars in profit from her cell line.