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Henrietta Lacks estate sues company using her 'stolen' cells
abc news ^

Posted on 10/04/2021 6:39:31 PM PDT by algore

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The estate of Henrietta Lacks sued a biotechnology company on Monday, accusing it of selling cells that doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took from the Black woman in 1951 without her knowledge or consent as part of “a racially unjust medical system."

Tissue taken from the woman's tumor before she died of cervical cancer became the first human cells to be successfully cloned. Reproduced infinitely ever since, HeLa cells have become a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling countless scientific and medical innovations, including the development of the polio vaccine, genetic mapping and even COVID-19 vaccines.

Lacks’ cells were harvested and developed long before the advent of consent procedures used in medicine and scientific research today, but lawyers for her family say Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., of Waltham, Massachusetts, has continued to commercialize the results well after the origins of the HeLa cell line became well known.

“It is outrageous that this company would think that they have intellectual rights property to their grandmother’s cells. Why is it they have intellectual rights to her cells and can benefit billions of dollars when her family, her flesh and blood, her Black children, get nothing?” one of the family's attorneys, Ben Crump, said Monday at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Baltimore.

Johns Hopkins said it never sold or profited from the cell lines, but many companies have patented ways of using them. Crump said these distributors have made billions from the genetic material “stolen” from Lacks' body.

Another family attorney, Christopher Seeger, hinted at related claims against other companies.

Thermo Fisher Scientific "shouldn’t feel too alone because they’re going to have a lot of company soon,” Seeger said.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bencrump; christopherseeger; henriettalacks; law; lawyer
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1 posted on 10/04/2021 6:39:31 PM PDT by algore
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To: algore

HeLa Cells = Hella Cells!
I don’t think there will be any payoff though.


2 posted on 10/04/2021 6:42:40 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: algore

I kind of like this. Pass the popcorn, please.


3 posted on 10/04/2021 6:44:02 PM PDT by fini
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To: algore

Only Big Pharma can patent/own your DNA.


4 posted on 10/04/2021 6:44:27 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum ("Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy." ― Mao Zedong)
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To: algore

Somebody is looking for a check. When I read “Ben Crump” I realized it was a big shakedown.

CC


5 posted on 10/04/2021 6:44:29 PM PDT by Celtic Conservative (My cats are more amusing than 200 channels worth of TV.)
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To: algore

The family will likely get their money and rightfully so.


6 posted on 10/04/2021 6:50:35 PM PDT by WMarshal ("Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.")
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To: algore

I don’t like the “racial injustice” angle, but the cells were hers and I think her family deserves compensation.


7 posted on 10/04/2021 6:52:20 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (China is like the Third Reich. We are Mussolini's Italy. A weaker, Jr partner, good at losing wars.)
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To: Celtic Conservative

I thought they had already done something like this.

At the time that all of this happened, I don’t believe there were any laws or regulations regarding the use of cells like these.


8 posted on 10/04/2021 6:52:46 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: WMarshal

Law and Order had a great episode on this very thing.

In the show they got lots of money.

I wish this family well.

.


9 posted on 10/04/2021 6:53:14 PM PDT by Mears (.)
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To: Mears

I doubt they’ll receive anything, if Law - and not ‘wokeness’ - is followed.


10 posted on 10/04/2021 6:55:57 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: algore

Ben Crump again. Not surprised.


11 posted on 10/04/2021 6:57:54 PM PDT by Robert DeLong
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To: Mears
Law and Order had a great episode on this very thing.

OMG!! I was just going to post the same thing. Sounds like an episode of Law & Order.

12 posted on 10/04/2021 7:01:50 PM PDT by gubamyster
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To: algore

Benjamin Crump (spit)


13 posted on 10/04/2021 7:03:34 PM PDT by griswold3 (When chaos serves the State, the State will encourage chaos)
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To: Celtic Conservative

In this case, there should have been payouts to the immediate family; sons, daughters.

and this late?
TONS of payouts to sons, daughters.

and if they’re dead, grandsons and daughters.

but, only once.


14 posted on 10/04/2021 7:04:20 PM PDT by RaceBannon (Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for )
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To: gubamyster

The book about Henrietta Lacks is more fascinating than any television show:

https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052173/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1633399489&sr=8-1


15 posted on 10/04/2021 7:06:12 PM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: algore

Bunch of crap.


16 posted on 10/04/2021 7:07:44 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: WMarshal

You’re an ignoramus.


17 posted on 10/04/2021 7:08:12 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Jamestown1630

Thanks for that. I had no idea.


18 posted on 10/04/2021 7:08:51 PM PDT by gubamyster
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To: algore
Finally! About time!

Read this! Seriously, Read. This. Book.


19 posted on 10/04/2021 7:11:51 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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To: Jamestown1630

Five minutes behind you! :)


20 posted on 10/04/2021 7:13:12 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
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