Explore the current landscape for patient consent with this 1440 Original video tied to Henrietta Lacks' legacy.

Read an excerpt from 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,' the story of the Black woman whose nonconsensually sampled cancerous cells underpin thousands of research papers and several Nobel Prize-winning works.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

60 years after seeing Henrietta Lacks as a patient, her doctor still remembered the unique cervical tumor that gave rise to the 'immortal' cell line now commonly used in biomedical research—it was purple, shiny, and soft—an appearance he said is very different from a typical tumor.

See the trailer for the 2017 HBO movie 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' starring Oprah Winfrey, who plays the daughter of the Black woman whose cancer cells were taken without her knowledge or permission, and now underpin numerous scientific discoveries.

More than 100,000 scientific publications between 1953 and 2018 reported using HeLa cells—the cancerous cells nonconsensually taken from a Black woman named Henrietta Lacks in 1951.

'Immortal' HeLa cells—cancerous cells widely used in biomedical research after they were nonconsensually taken from a Black woman named Henrietta Lacks—proliferate easily, causing millions of dollars of damage annually by contaminating lab cell cultures.

Henrietta Lacks' tumor cells became the first recognized 'immortal' cell line about 75 years ago, but researchers are still investigating the specific mechanisms that enabled the cells to continuously grow and divide in the laboratory.

Novartis settled with the family of Henrietta Lacks in 2026 for an undisclosed sum after using Lacks' cancerous cells in numerous patents decades after Lacks' cancerous cells were taken without her knowledge or consent.

Scientists now know that Henrietta Lacks, a Black woman whose 'immortal' cancer cells were nonconsensually sampled and used for research, had been infected with human papillomavirus, a group of pathogens responsible for most cervical cancers.

Six of history's most unethical human experiments, from deliberate flu exposure to withholding syphilis treatment

Some of the progress made in mental health treatment, vaccines, blood transfusions, and more came about before the advent of consent and ethics committees, resulting in serious physical and psychological harm that participants in studies were not even anticipating.

About 70% of the Human Genome Project's reference genome came from one donor

Volunteers who donated blood to the Human Genome Project consented to using no more than 10% of their DNA, raising questions about the project's legality. Listen to how pressure from a private competitor may have driven officials to ignore ethical standards.

Modernizing health data privacy: A call for comprehensive reform

Despite the advancements in medical technology and data collection, securing personal health data remains a pressing issue in the 21st century. This Forbes article analyzes the state of health data privacy, sheds light on the current shortcomings,...

The lack of diversity in clinical trials is undermining the future of precision medicine

Medicine works better when the treatments are tailored to fit each individual person’s biology and history. Homogeneous patient selection in clinical trials means treatments and care are being refined based on only a small range of variables, some of which may not apply to you. This 40-minute podcast episode discusses the historical and current reasons for the lack of clinical trial diversity and what this means for the future of personalized medicine.

This Indiana medical school encouraged students to get to know their cadavers' families

The school's anatomy professor instructed medical students to think of the cadavers they worked with as their "first patients"—using their names to acknowledge that this was a person and to exchange letters with the cadaver's family members if they agreed to participate. At the conclusion of the course, families were invited to a lab-based memorial service.

Experience a century of America's healthcare advances with this medical visualization, tracing a sampling of healthcare innovations from head to toe.

Some medical schools have phased out human cadavers for digital alternatives

AI-based anatomy tools and digital cadavers are increasingly used to teach students, bypassing the ethical and consent concerns around the use of real bodies. Digital cadavers have also become less expensive than real ones, though the tactile and sensory experiences of real dissection may be irreplaceable.

Minorities are largely underrepresented in medical research, which compromises our understanding of how conditions and treatments may affect various populations, but recent efforts, like the African Ancestry Neuroscience Research Initiative and new genome research studies, are seeking to close that gap.

'Donation after circulatory death' is on the rise

This occurs when a patient in a coma is on life support and family members agree to donate the organs. Watch this video about a 2025 New York Times investigation that identified 12 instances across nine states of bungled or premature attempts to retrieve organs from people whose families had authorized withdrawal of life support.

The promises and perils of using at-home genetic tests for your health

A primer on genetic testing, personalized medicine, and the promise of pharmacogenomics–the use of genetics to predict an individual's response to a drug.

A scientist successfully treated her own breast cancer by injecting the tumor with lab-grown viruses.

Watch this 2021 video demonstrating a full brain death examination

This video and accompanying article in the peer-reviewed New England Journal of Medicine show the then-standard steps of a full brain death examination—demonstrating the process on a medical dummy to search for pain, blinking, eye movement, cough, gagging, or other forms of responsiveness. (May need to sign up for a free account to view.)

How uploading your consumer genetic testing could lead to a distant relative's arrest

This podcast includes a discussion about how law enforcement can compare DNA samples from a crime scene against voluntarily uploaded DNA on consumer genealogy databases to close cases. Investigators can and have cross-referenced a suspect's crime scene DNA with that of a suspect's relatives who happened to have chosen to upload their genetic information to an open-source genealogy database.

Genetic tests aren't always actionable, which is one reason genetic counselors are so vital

This podcast interview with a Harvard Medical School professor focused on cancer genetics and prevention discusses the specifics of genetic testing and insights and the challenges of processing the outcomes of the testing and what may be actionable—or not.

A student researcher working on the Human Genome Project shares their perspective

In a conversation with Ewan Birney, Director of the European Bio-informatics Institute, he discusses what it was like to be a PhD student working on the Human Genome Project in the months before the draft announcement and its impact on him and the field of genetics.

How two families navigated an unthinkable IVF mistake

The field offers hope to thousands of families annually, but it is also largely unregulated, and for a small number of parents, things can go terribly wrong.

A physician with a rare and deadly disease saved his own life by identifying an existing medication that he repurposed for his condition, and now he's using AI to try to do the same for other patients.

In 1968, a Harvard Medical School committee issued the first neurological definition of death

The definition set a legal and medical precedent for how we define death, important for issues including organ donation. This 2020 video podcast discusses the history of brain death controversies and the variability in how death has been determined, including discussions in the late 1960s about when patients are considered dead in the context of organ donations.

The lack of diversity in DNA databases limits their applications

European ancestry dominates genetic research, hindering the usage of genetic databases for precision medicine for other groups, including African Americans, who face higher health risks due to genetic variants. Many Indigenous communities have also resisted genetic research due to past exploitation. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

You can sign up to donate your body to science

It's a separate process to donate your body for medical research; you usually must contact a whole-body donation program directly. Bodies can be donated for medical research, for forensic analysis research, or for medical students to work with as they learn anatomy and surgery, among other purposes. Learn more about numerous accredited organizations that provide human bodies, organs, and tissues to medical researchers and students.

The medical profession has a dark history of 'body snatching' for education

This term originally referred to secretly removing corpses from graves for sale—usually to medical schools where they were used for education. The practice dates back at least to the 1300s but still—much more rarely—persists today.

The Golden State killer case spotlights how genetic testing can affect your—and your relatives'—privacy

Police managed to use consumer DNA test results to close a case 32 years after a killer was believed to have committed at least 12 murders and 50 rapes. Their "smoking gun": They compared a DNA sample from the crime scene to genetic data relatives had shared on an open-source genealogy database. The suspect was caught after investigators explored family trees on this database and connected the dots from over 100 distant relatives who had some percentage of DNA that matched the killer. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

A radiation oncologist has studied near-death experience reports for over 25 years and compiled around 4,000 accounts in the hopes of finding more patterns that would reveal insights about consciousness and humans' final moments before or around death.

Psychedelic therapy's ethical guidelines (or lack thereof)

With a checkered history of misconduct, how will psychedelic-assisted therapists be held accountable in the emerging legal field? This article explores the nascent field's need for ethical guidelines and clear protection of patient rights when therapeutic breakthroughs teeter "on the edge of consent."

How personalized gene-editing saved a baby's life

KJ Muldoon had a 50% chance of surviving a genetic mutation until doctors developed a one-of-a-kind gene-editing therapy. In an interview with one of the researchers behind the treatment, learn what it will take to make personalized genetic medicine possible for everyone.

Listen to a reporter discuss his story spotlighting a decadeslong corporate cover-up about forever chemicals, substances, which can persist in the environment for hundreds of years—though not forever.

Dr. Bernard Fisher pioneered lumpectomy in the 1970s as a treatment for breast cancer.

The woman erased from the DNA breakthrough

Rosalind Franklin captured “Photo 51,” the key to DNA’s double helix. Her data, shared without her knowledge, helped Watson and Crick win a Nobel. She never got the prize, but today, her role in unlocking life’s blueprint is finally recognized.

Exploring the link between history, art, and anatomy

Throughout centuries, art has played a vital role in sharing—and furthering—scientific understanding. This largely began in 1543 when physician Andreas Vesalius worked with an artist and engraver to transform learnings from his dissections into...