happened.
Years later, I asked Wayne Grody, who was in the thick of the debate in the nineties, why
the congressional recommendations and NBAC report seemed to have vanished.
“It’s weird, but I have no idea,” he said. “If you can figure that out, I’d like to know. We all
just wanted to forget about it, like if we ignored it, maybe it would just go away.” But it didn’t.
And given the steady flow of court cases related to tissues, the issue isn’t going away anytime
soon.
Despite all the other cases and the press they’ve received, the Lacks family has never ac-
tually tried to sue anyone over the HeLa cells. Several lawyers and ethicists have suggested
to me that since there is no way to anonymize HeLa cells at this point, research on them
should be covered by the Common Rule. And since some of the DNA present in Henrietta’s
cells is also present in her children, it’s possible to argue that by doing research on HeLa, sci-
entists are also doing research on the Lacks children. Since the Common Rule says that re-
search subjects must be allowed to withdraw from research at any time, these experts have
told me that, in theory, the Lacks family might be able to withdraw HeLa cells from all re-
search worldwide. And in fact, there are precedents for such a case, including one in which a
woman successfully had her father’s DNA removed from a database in Iceland. Every re-
searcher I’ve mentioned that idea to shudders at the thought of it. Vincent Racaniello, a pro-
fessor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University, who once calculated that he’s
grown about 800 billion HeLa cells for his own research, says that restricting HeLa cell use
would be disastrous. “The impact that would have on science is inconceivable,” he said.
As for the Lackses, they have few legal options. They couldn’t sue over the cells being
taken in the first place for several reasons, including the fact that the statute of limitations
passed decades ago. They could attempt to stop HeLa research through a lawsuit, arguing
that it’s impossible to anonymize Henrietta’s cells, which contain their DNA. But many legal
experts I’ve talked with doubt such a case would succeed. Regardless, the Lackses aren’t in-
terested in stopping all HeLa research. “I don’t want to cause problems for science,” Sonny
told me as this book went to press. “Dale wouldn’t want that. And besides, I’m proud of my
mother and what she done for science. I just hope Hopkins and some of the other folks who
benefited off her cells will do something to honor her and make right with the family.”
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Acknowledgments