Medical exploitation of Black people in America goes far beyond the cells stolen from Henrietta Lacks that produced modern day miracles

A photo of Henrietta Lacks sits in the living room of her grandson. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty Images

In a case that revealed the exploitation of a Black woman beginning in the 1950s and extending for 70 years, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. settled a lawsuit that the estate of Henrietta Lacks had filed against the biotech firm for its role in what the lawsuit called “a racially unjust medical system.”

In 1951, Lacks was diagnosed with cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, one of the only hospitals in the area that would treat African Americans at the time. During her treatment, a sample of her cancer cells was taken without her knowledge or consent. In the lawsuit, Thermo Fisher was accused of unjust enrichment and illegally profiting from Lacks’ genetic material. “Black suffering has fueled innumerable medical progress and profit, without just compensation or recognition,” the lawsuit said.