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Thermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicine

More than 70 years after doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital took Henrietta Lacks’ cervical cells without her knowledge, a lawyer for her descendants said they have reached a settlement with a biotechnology company they sued in 2021, accusing its leaders of reaping billions of dollars from a racist medical system.

lntl ,
@lntl@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Lots of people claim to be lovers of science and ignore or are oblivious to the fact that the majority of the history of science is filled with crazy shit. Glad TSF paid up, an acknowledgment that wrong was done.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I doubt a settlement would ever be good enough, but at least it’s something. Just another example of America fucking over a black woman.

DarkroomDoc ,

I’m sorry, but this is incredibly simplistic. How did they fuck her over? Lack of informed consent was certainly there, but was (unfortunately) not uncommon.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

I would say the lack of informed consent would be exactly it. I’m not sure why it not being uncommon makes a difference to whether or not it was an injustice.

DarkroomDoc ,

Essentially then, she and everyone else was fucked. Again, it’s a simplistic view that doesn’t account for degree of harm.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Everyone else didn’t earn various medical companies billions of dollars.

notfromhere ,

Having not RTFA, did they take cells from other people without adequate consent? If yes it doesn’t matter that they weren’t as valuable, the same offense happened.

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Of course it matters. That’s like saying it doesn’t matter that George Floyd was black because other non-black people have been killed by police. This was the exploitation of a black woman’s body for profit and her family was never compensated. Why you think that’s acceptable is beyond me.

notfromhere ,

I don’t think that’s acceptable. What I’m hearing from you is that the exploitation of a black women trumps the exploitation of everyone else for the same offense.

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

Your reading comprehension is substandard.

notfromhere ,

And you’re a jerk, so what of it?

snooggums ,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

At least I am a jerk that can read and understand points about systemic racism without trying to dismiss it as happening to other people in a floundering display of whataboutism

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Lacks was only selected at all because of race. Hopkins was the only hospital in the area that treated black people (in a segregated ward) and also poor people, which she was both. And in exchange, they used them for experiments. It absolutely was racial injustice because she would not even have been in the position to have her immortal cell line preserved had she been white.

DLSchichtl ,

Bet you think all lives matter too, bigot!

Goathound ,

And let's not forget her cells are the foundation of modern vaccine research, without them we'd still have waves of Polio and who knows what else. Even outside of the financial aspect we owe a lot to Henrietta Lacks as a species.

And it is beyond cruel that she was used like a lab rat, like many Black Americans have been through the country's history. It's not about the degree of harm, IMO, sure they didn't cut off her arms, but she was a systematic victim of our medical industry and given no compensation or credit for the advancements in global medicine during her time.

DarkroomDoc ,

I’m not sure what to make of the argument- on one hand I get your point for sure, no one wants to be profited off of. That said, she could not have possibly been credited in her time as she passed in the same year to biopsy was performed. Furthermore, the cell line was taken from the remaining tissue for her biopsy, which was destined to be destroyed or discarded. I think this argues against the idea that she was uniquely victimized.

This is certainly not to discount her contribution, it’s just that the harm here (lack of informed consent) was pervasive and widespread. If there’s another another harm committed, please enlighten.

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