It's not surprising that Henrietta Lacks-whose immortal HeLa cells were pivotal in developing treatments for diseases such as polio, HIV/AIDS, and COVID19-is referred to as the mother of modern medicine. But Lacks's legacy is complicated due to the ethical concerns surrounding the use of her special cells.
Lacks, who died of cancer at age 31 in 1951, was never aware that her cells led to significant medical advancements or that they had been taken without her consent. And even now, her strange case raises questions about the morally dubious methods through which we achieved unquestionably positive breakthroughs in medicine.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks // Though her cells live on in labs across the world, Henrietta Lacks remained largely unrecognized during her lifetime. It wasn't until author Rebecca Skloot investigated the origins of the famous HeLa cells that Lacks's story gained widespread attention with the bestselling 2010 book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
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