Es­tate of Hen­ri­et­ta Lacks sues Ther­mo Fish­er over the im­prop­er sale of her im­mor­tal cells

The fam­i­ly of a black woman whose im­mor­tal cells were un­eth­i­cal­ly tak­en from her at Johns Hop­kins hos­pi­tal in 1951 is now su­ing Ther­mo Fish­er Sci­en­tif­ic for prof­it­ing from the cells for decades.

The world-fa­mous cell line, known for Hen­ri­et­ta Lacks as HeLa and the sub­ject of a best­selling book about a decade ago, have proven to be in­cred­i­bly im­por­tant in hu­man his­to­ry, help­ing sci­en­tists to make ma­jor strides, from the po­lio vac­cine to in vit­ro fer­til­iza­tion.

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