Descendants of Henrietta Lacks file another lawsuit over the cell line | Hacker News Reader

Descendants of Henrietta Lacks file another lawsuit over the cell line

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4 pointstomohelix4 comments

Curious to hear everyone's opinion about this. On one hand, the cell line was developed without consent. On the other hand, such consent was not legally required and Lacks did receive free healthcare when her cell was cloned. And her name is forever immortalized and highly regarded in the medical field. Trying to sue for it now is pretty much profiteering from the dead imo.

Burn all the HELA samples. There's plenty of other cell lines. It's not worth messing with lawyers, just move on to samples with donor's permission.

I am sure many company and new research labs are doing this. But the body of research that was built on HeLa cannot be discarded or we would literally regress decades.

And that is what the lawsuit is about. They are suing about the "exploitation" of the cell line without consent so all the drugs and results that involve HeLa cells are held hostage.

> They are suing about the "exploitation" of the cell line without consent

You asked for our opinion. I will instead offer contrasting examples: James Harrison donated blood every week for 60 years, helping save the lives of about 2.4 million babies, thanks to possessing rare antibodies: https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/11/health/james-harrison-blo...

Unlike the "exploitation" of the HeLa cells, that caused not the slightest inconvenience to Henrietta Lacks, he had to visit a transfusion center for each donation.

Barry Marshall deliberately infected himself with a bacteria to prove it caused peptic ulcers, risking his health, which led to their treatment with antibiotics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Marshall

Some will selflessly sacrifice their time, and risk their health, for the common good. Others won't give even a handful of cells, at no cost to themselves, without claiming victimhood and demanding compensation.

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