This petition was established to bring awareness and to show the support of the scientific community for the family of Henrietta Lacks in order to redress the severe inequity facing the family of Henrietta Lacks, a 31-year-old POC who's cervical carcinoma cells were involuntarily harvested and utilized for medical research. The cells from her body where therein sold at great profit by biopharmaceutical companies around the world. The issues faced by Henrietta Lacks and her family highlight the racial inequality in the biomedical system and the inadequate protection of POC patients and patients of all colors. 

In 1951 Henrietta Lacks was admitted to the Johns Hopkins Hospital and treated for cervical cancer; the cervical biopsy that supplied cells which would become HeLa was taken without her consent. We ask here that Johns Hopkins and all companies receiving significant financial benefit from the HeLa cell line commit to establishing and documenting informed patient consent on a publicly accessible platform for all human cell lines they currently use/sell and compensating all patients from whom cell lines were established without consent.