Henrietta Lacks: Family of woman whose cells were 'stolen' settles second lawsuitGetty ImagesThe family of a black woman whose cervical cells were harvested in 1951 without her knowledge and replicated infinitely ever since has reached a settlement with a second biotech company. The Switzerland-based company Novartis was accused in a lawsuit of profiting from Henrietta Lacks' cells, which were taken without consent but have enabled huge advances in medical science. Lacks' family never received any compensation, and have fought for years to get justice for the "stolen" cells. Nearly three years ago, the family settled with another biotech company, Massachusetts-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, for undisclosed terms. Lacks, a 31-year-old mother from Baltimore, Maryland, began experiencing pain in her abdomen and abnormal bleeding in 1951. She was examined by gynaecologists at Johns Hopkins Hospital, who discovered a large mass on her cervix. Without informing her or asking for permission, doctors sent a sample of her tumour to a lab for medical research before treating her for aggressive cervical cancer. But, while nearly all cell cultures died quickly in the lab, those taken from Ms Lacks continued to multiply and didn't age, making them "immortal".
