BALTIMORE — Family members of Henrietta Lacks are asking a federal judge to reject Thermo Fisher Scientific’s second attempt to get the court to dismiss the family’s lawsuit against the multimillion-dollar biotech company.
In court documents filed Friday, Ron Lacks — Henrietta Lacks’ grandson, who is representing her estate in the lawsuit — requested a hearing on the motion to dismiss that Thermo Fisher filed in January.
At question in the unprecedented lawsuit is whether Thermo Fisher, and other companies, should pay Henrietta Lacks’ living descendants for products derived from cells taken from her by a Johns Hopkins doctor in 1951 without her knowledge or consent while she was receiving treatment for cervical cancer.
