10-31-2025, 10:13 PM
They took her cells without asking, and built a billion dollar industry on her body.
In 1951, a 31 year old woman named Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was a Black mother of five, in pain, and desperate for help. Doctors found a tumor on her cervix, aggressive and fast spreading cancer.
Without telling her, they took a small sample of the tumor during treatment. That tiny piece of tissue changed science forever.
Henrietta’s cells did something no other human cell ever had. They kept growing. Instead of dying after a few days, they doubled every 24 hours. Scientists were shocked. They called them HeLa cells, taken from the first two letters of her name.
Those cells became the foundation of modern medicine.
They helped create the polio vaccine, advanced cancer research, and supported discoveries in AIDS treatment, IVF, gene mapping, and even space science.
Billions of HeLa cells have been sold to labs worldwide. Entire industries and careers were built on them.
But Henrietta never gave consent, and never earned a cent.
Her family did not even know until the 1970s, when scientists asked her children for blood samples. They were shocked to learn their mother’s cells were still alive, still being used in labs around the world. Meanwhile, they could not afford basic health insurance.
Henrietta died in 1951, but her cells are still growing today, used in more than seventy five thousand studies.
She was never credited during her lifetime, but now her story is told in the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. In 2023, a statue was built in her honor.
She never got to choose how her body was used.
Yet her cells helped save millions of lives.
Say her name, Henrietta Lacks.
In 1951, a 31 year old woman named Henrietta Lacks went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. She was a Black mother of five, in pain, and desperate for help. Doctors found a tumor on her cervix, aggressive and fast spreading cancer.
Without telling her, they took a small sample of the tumor during treatment. That tiny piece of tissue changed science forever.
Henrietta’s cells did something no other human cell ever had. They kept growing. Instead of dying after a few days, they doubled every 24 hours. Scientists were shocked. They called them HeLa cells, taken from the first two letters of her name.
Those cells became the foundation of modern medicine.
They helped create the polio vaccine, advanced cancer research, and supported discoveries in AIDS treatment, IVF, gene mapping, and even space science.
Billions of HeLa cells have been sold to labs worldwide. Entire industries and careers were built on them.
But Henrietta never gave consent, and never earned a cent.
Her family did not even know until the 1970s, when scientists asked her children for blood samples. They were shocked to learn their mother’s cells were still alive, still being used in labs around the world. Meanwhile, they could not afford basic health insurance.
Henrietta died in 1951, but her cells are still growing today, used in more than seventy five thousand studies.
She was never credited during her lifetime, but now her story is told in the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. In 2023, a statue was built in her honor.
She never got to choose how her body was used.
Yet her cells helped save millions of lives.
Say her name, Henrietta Lacks.