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With its HeLa genome agreement, NIH embraces an expansive definition of familial consent in genetics

Michael Eisen, Professor of molecular and cell biology | August 26, 2013

I wrote before about the controversy involving the release earlier this year of a genome sequence of the HeLa cell line, which was taken without consent from Henrietta Lacks as she lay dying of ovarian cancer in 1950s Baltimore. Now, the NIH has announced an agreement with Lacks’ descendants to obtain their consent for access … Continue reading »