United States HR 3498: Henrietta Lacks Congressional Gold Medal Act

Bill Text

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119TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 3498
To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Henrietta Lacks,
in recognition of her immortal cells which have made invaluable contribu-
tions to global health, scientific research, our quality of life, and patients’
rights.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MAY 19, 2025
Mr. MFUME (for himself, Mrs. BEATTY, Mr. CARSON, Mr. CARTER of Lou-
isiana, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mrs. MCCLAIN DELANEY, Mr. DAVIS
of Illinois, Mr. DAVIS of North Carolina, Ms. ELFRETH, Mr. EVANS of
Pennsylvania, Mr. FIELDS, Mrs. FOUSHEE, Mr. HOYER, Mr. IVEY, Mr.
JOHNSON of Georgia, Ms. KELLY of Illinois, Mr. LYNCH, Mrs. MCIVER,
Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Ms. NORTON, Mr. OLSZEWSKI, Ms. PLASKETT,
Mr. RASKIN, Ms. SEWELL, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi,
Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Ms. WILLIAMS of Georgia, and Ms. WILSON of
Florida) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Financial Services, and in addition to the Committee on House
Administration, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speak-
er, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the ju-
risdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To award posthumously a Congressional Gold Medal to Hen-
rietta Lacks, in recognition of her immortal cells which
have made invaluable contributions to global health, sci-
entific research, our quality of life, and patients’ rights.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Henrietta Lacks Con-2
gressional Gold Medal Act’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 4
Congress finds the following: 5
(1) Henrietta Lacks, an African-American 6
woman born on August 1, 1920, in Roanoke, Vir-7
ginia, was raised by her grandfather on a tobacco 8
farm in Clover, Virginia. 9
(2) Henrietta Lacks, her husband, and family 10
moved to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1941 seeking eco-11
nomic opportunity at the Bethlehem Steel Plant. 12
(3) In 1951, Henrietta Lacks sought treatment 13
for her continuous vaginal bleeding from The Johns 14
Hopkins Hospital, which was one of the few hos-15
pitals willing to treat African Americans at that 16
time. Gynecologists discovered a large, malignant 17
tumor on her cervix. 18
(4) Unbeknownst to Henrietta Lacks or her 19
family, medical researchers took samples of Hen-20
rietta Lacks’ tumor during her treatment without 21
her consent. Henrietta Lacks’ cells, now known as 22
‘‘HeLa Cells’’, doubled every 20 to 24 hours whereas 23
other human cells died in the same time period. The 24
HeLa Cells are the first known immortal line of 25
human cells in history. 26
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(5) On October 4, 1951, 31-year-old Henrietta 1
Lacks died of an aggressive cervical cancer eight 2
months after her cancer diagnosis, leaving behind 3
her husband and 5 children. 4
(6) The HeLa immortal cell line is the oldest 5
and most used human cell line used in scientific re-6
search. Henrietta Lacks’ immortal cells have been 7
commercialized and distributed worldwide to re-8
searchers, resulting in groundbreaking advancements 9
in modern science and technology. 10
(7) Henrietta Lacks’ prolific cells continue to 11
replicate to this day and contribute to remarkable 12
advances in medicine, including the development of 13
the polio vaccine and drugs used to treat cancer, 14
HIV/AIDS, hemophilia, leukemia, and Parkinson’s 15
disease. HeLa cells have been used in research that 16
has contributed to our understanding of the effects 17
of radiation and zero gravity on human cells, and 18
have informed research on chromosomal conditions, 19
cancer, gene mapping, and precision medicine. 20
(8) The use of HeLa cells as the foundation for 21
biomedical research has led to several Nobel Prize 22
winning discoveries. The National Institute of 23
Health located over 110,000 publications that cited 24
the use of HeLa cells between 1953 to 2018. These 25
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advances were made possible by Henrietta Lacks’ 1
cells, yet the revenues they generated were not 2
known to her family for more than twenty years. 3
(9) Henrietta Lacks is a linchpin to modern 4
bioethics policies and informed consent laws that 5
benefit patients nationwide by building patient trust 6
and protecting research participants. 7
(10) Henrietta Lacks’ legacy has been recog-8
nized around the world through memorials, con-9
ferences, museum exhibitions, libraries, and print 10
and visual media for changing the face of medical 11
scienc