00:00 Henrietta Lacks, a mother of five who died of cervical cancer in 1951, had a tissue sample taken from her cancer cells that became the basis for decades of research and sparked a medical ethics controversy.

01:34 Henrietta Lacks, who grew up in a log cabin on a tobacco farm and had children at a young age, was diagnosed with a knot in her womb and severe hemorrhaging, leading her to seek medical help at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in 1951.

02:44 Henrietta Lacks' tissue sample taken during her treatment at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in 1951 was found to contain cells that were capable of dividing indefinitely, making them the first immortal human cells ever discovered and leading to the creation of the HeLa cell line, which has been invaluable for biomedical researchers.

04:03 The HeLa cell line derived from Henrietta Lacks' cells has been extensively used in medical research, including for the development of the polio vaccine, cancer and AIDS research, gene splicing, radiation testing, and testing the safety of consumer products, resulting in numerous patents and millions of dollars in profits, all without the knowledge or consent of Henrietta or her family.

05:24 Henrietta Lacks' cells were used for research without her family's knowledge or consent, and even after the source of the cells was revealed, no laws were broken because there were no regulations in place at the time; however, the ethical line was crossed when the entire genome of the HeLa cells was published in 2013, exposing private medical information of Henrietta's descendants, leading to movements and events to honor and recognize Henrietta Lacks.

06:40 Financial reparations have been made to Henrietta Lacks and her family for the use of her cells, including donations from the Howard Hughes Medical Center, Abcam, and the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the Henrietta Lacks Foundation grants funds to those who have unknowingly been part of historic medical research studies, including Henrietta's own descendants and black men who were unwitting participants of government syphilis experiments.

07:52 Henrietta Lacks' family may have achieved their goal of financial reparations, and the podcast host thanks listeners for their support.