Henrietta Lacks was an ordinary woman who became central to groundbreaking scientific advances—though she never knew it. Born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Virginia, Henrietta’s life was full of hardship and struggle. After her mother died giving birth to her, Henrietta’s father moved the family to Clover, Virginia. He split up his 10 children to be raised by relatives, and Henrietta ended up living with her grandfather, along with her cousin, David (nicknamed Day). In 1941, Henrietta and Day got married, and not long after, they moved to Turner Station, Maryland, near Baltimore, where Day worked at the Bethlehem Steel mill, which was booming during World War II.
In 1951, Henrietta began experiencing unusual symptoms after her fifth pregnancy—painful bleeding and a lump on her cervix. She went to see a doctor, who referred her to the gynecology department at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. There, a biopsy confirmed the presence of a cervical tumor, which had been missed during earlier exams. The doctors decided to treat her with radium, the standard treatment at the time, which involved inserting small glass tubes of radioactive metal into her cervix. While performing this procedure, they took tissue samples—one from the tumor and one from healthy tissue nearby.
What Henrietta didn’t know was that her cells, taken without her consent, would become one of the most important tools in medical research. The cells, which were named HeLa (from Henrietta Lacks), didn’t just survive—they multiplied at an incredible rate. This made them perfect for scientists like George Gey, who was trying to create an “immortal” cell line for cancer research. Henrietta never gave consent for her cells to be used this way, and she never knew how her tissue was being studied. Back then, it wasn’t uncommon for doctors to take tissue samples without informing patients (something that was later highlighted in the controversial Tuskegee syphilis study).
Sadly, as her cancer spread, Henrietta’s health deteriorated. By September 1951, her condition worsened, and she passed away in October of that year. But her HeLa cells lived on, thriving in labs and helping fuel countless medical breakthroughs. These cells contributed to the development of treatments for polio, Parkinson’s disease, leukemia, and more. Despite their widespread use, Henrietta’s family didn’t learn about her role in these advances until decades later.
For years, Henrietta’s contribution was largely overlooked, and the issue of consent remained a major ethical debate in medicine. In the 21st century, her case became a key example in the push for patient rights and informed consent in research. In 2013, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) gave Henrietta’s family control over how data from her HeLa cell genome would be used. That year, the HeLa cell genome was sequenced in full, and the Lacks family became part of the conversation about how to regulate access to such valuable genetic information. Henrietta Lacks’ story, and her cells, continue to shape the conversation around ethics in science and medicine today.
