402 RüdigerKunow
defying the laws of biology as they were then known, they did not die
after a few days but continued to multiply. And so, "they can grow
indefinitely, be frozen for decades, divided into different batches and
shared among scientists" (Zielinski n. pag.). Today, they are the oldest
human cell line in use in laboratories around the world, and they have
been instrumental in the progress of genomics and also in more
conventionalmedicaluses,amongthemavaccineforpolio(Zielinskin.
pag.).
HeLa cells are thus among the most frequently handled medical
materials,usedandstored,andcertainlystoried,notonlyinthemedical
community but also the general culture. Concerning the former context,
it is commonly assumed that this cell line did in fact "change the future
of medicine" (Skloot 1). Without these cells, the development of
genomics would have been more difficult and would have taken longer
(Skloot 219-22; Zielinski n. pag.). HeLa has been an undisputable boon
formedicalresearchwithanestimated11,000patentsbasedonit^97 —not
so, however, for Lacks during or after her life-time for her next of kin.
For this reason, I would also disagree with Hannah Landecker—
celebrated author ofCulturing Life(2007)—and her assessment that
HeLa is "the personification of the cell line in the image of the woman
fromwhosebodyitwasextracted"(qtd.inHolloway3).Inpointoffact,
thesemanticsofhercellsremainedlargelyundeterminedastheirhistory
and the notion of a biological original was erased at the very moment
hercellsenteredthecircuitofbiomedicalresearch.
Aside from grounding cellular research in a recognizable individual,
Lacks'scasewasaprototypicalcaseofbio-prospectingor-pirating:The
cells had been removed from her body without her knowledge or
consent, and even after the spectacular advances had been made with
thismaterial,nobodybotheredtoinformherfamily–whichproves,once
again, the multiple ways in which race and gender impact on research
and research practice. In this way, the somatic was carefully separated
fromanysocialorculturalsemantics.
(^97) This estimate is also the basis for claims made that Lacks's family receive
reparations. Cf. Penrice, Ronda Racha. "Henrietta Lacks' [sic] Family Deserves
Reparations."TheGrio.TheGrio,9Aug.2013.Web.09July2017.