The scientist couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Every other sample of cells he'd seen died quickly in his lab, but these cells from a poor black woman doubled every 24 hours.

He had to get more of them at any cost. This is two-minute black history. What You

Didn't Learn in School.

Henrietta Lax was a poor tobacco farmer from Virginia who died of aggressive cervical cancer on

October 4, 1951.

But it wasn't her life that made medical history.

It was after her death.

When she died, doctors harvested her cancer cells at Baltimore's John Hopkins Hospital without

her consent or her family's knowledge.

But this theft was just the beginning.

Her cells were the centerpiece of some of the most notable moments in medical history.

Why were they so special?

While other cells died in the lab, Lax actually doubled.

This was unheard of.

Her cells, nicknamed Hella, were special.

They were used to develop the AIDS treatment, the polio vaccine, treatments for hemophilia, herpes, influenza, and leukemia, and in vitro fertilization.

In other words, her cells are responsible for saving lives.

So where's the problem?

Lacks and her family never benefited from the thousands of patents and billions of

dollars her cells helped generate. Many of her family members couldn't even afford basic health

insurance, let alone profit from their bloodline. It was 2013 before they even had a say and how her cells were used.

...