Henrietta Lacks - Infinite Women

Born: 1 August 1920, United States
Died: 4 October 1951
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Loretta Pleasant

The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.

Henrietta Lacks, born Loretta Pleasant, was an African-American woman whose cancer cells became a major part of medical history. During her treatment for cervical cancer in 1951, her cells were taken without her permission nor knowledge and became the HeLa cell line, the first immortal human cell line, still used in medical research today.
A scientist named George Otto Gey cultured these cells, but Henrietta and her family weren’t asked for consent or compensated for their use.
It wasn’t until 1975 that the Lacks family learned about the HeLa cell line, even though some researchers knew about it in 1970. As this information became public, it raised concerns about privacy, patient rights, and racist abuse of Black women. The ongoing use of HeLa cells in research and commerce raises ethical questions about science and individual rights.
On August 8, 1951, at the age of 31, Henrietta Lacks sought medical help at Johns Hopkins due to severe abdominal pain. She received treatment, including blood transfusions, but passed away on October 4, 1951. A partial autopsy revealed that her cancer had spread throughout her body.
Henrietta Lacks was laid to rest in an unmarked grave in Lackstown, Clover, Virginia, near her childhood home. In 2010, Roland Pattillo, a Morehouse School of Medicine faculty member donated a headstone for Henrietta Lacks. The headstone for Henrietta Lacks takes the shape of a book and bears an epitaph crafted by her grandchildren.
Henrietta Lacks, August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951
In loving memory of a phenomenal woman,
wife and mother who touched the lives of many.
Here lies Henrietta Lacks (HeLa). Her immortal
cells will continue to help mankind forever.
Eternal Love and Admiration, From Your Family
October 11, 1996, was proclaimed “Henrietta Lacks Day” by the Atlanta mayor.

The following is republished from the National Endowment for the Arts. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).

There is no one way to change the course of history; sometimes, one’s impact is entirely unintentional or even unknown. Such is the case with Henrietta Lacks. In 1951, Lacks visited Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital with bleeding, which was eventually diagnosed as cervical cancer. Although Lacks passed away a few months later, the cells that were taken from her tumor—without her or her family’s knowledge—didn’t die, but instead doubled every 20 to 24 hours. This made them invaluable to researchers, and the “HeLa” cell line, as it is today called, has contributed to the development of the polio vaccine, in vitro fertilization, gene mapping, and other medical breakthroughs. Despite this, Lacks’s personal story and the ethical issues surrounding her cells have only recently come to light, revealing the complex human and social histories entwined within the study of medicine.