On August 8, 1951, Lacks, who was 31 years old, went to Johns Hopkins for a routine treatment session and asked to be admitted due to continued severe abdominal pain. She received blood transfusions and remained at the hospital until her death on October 4, 1951.{{sfn|Skloot|2010|p=86}} A partial [[autopsy]] showed that the cancer had [[metastasized]] throughout her entire body.<ref name="vpbio"/><ref name="Baltimore City News" />
[[File:Lacks Town Road; Clover, VA; 2013-07-14.JPG|thumb|[[commons:Category:Lacks Town Road|Lacks Town Road]] in Clover, Virginia, near where Lacks grew up and is buried]]
-Lacks was buried in an unmarked grave in the family cemetery, in a section of clover called Lackstown. Lacks's exact burial location is unknown, but the family believes that it is within a few feet of her mother's gravesite, which for decades was the only one in the family to have been marked with a tombstone.<ref name="vpbio"/><ref name="Baltimore City News">{{cite news |first=Van |last=Smith |title=Wonder Woman: The Life, Death, and Life After Death of Henrietta Lacks, Unwitting Heroine of Modern Medical Science|url=http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3426 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040814160109/http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3426|archive-date=August 14, 2004|newspaper=[[Baltimore City Paper]] |date=April 17, 2002 |access-date=September 19, 2016}}</ref><ref name=JHM2000>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0400web/01.html | last=Skloot| first=Rebecca |title=Henrietta's Dance |magazine=Johns Hopkins Magazine |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University]] |date=April 2000 |access-date=October 12, 2016 }}</ref> In 2010, [[Roland Pattillo]], a faculty member of the [[Morehouse School of Medicine]] who had worked with George Gey and knew the Lacks family,{{sfn|Skloot|2010|page=page 231}} donated a headstone for Lacks.<ref name="vpbio2"/> This prompted her family to raise money for a headstone for Elsie Lacks as well, which was dedicated on the same day.<ref name=vpbio2/> The book-shaped headstone of Henrietta Lacks contains an epitaph written by her grandchildren that reads:<ref name="vpbio"/>
+Lacks was buried in an unmarked grave in the family cemetery, in a section of Clover, Virginia called Lackstown. Lacks's exact burial location is unknown, but the family believes that it is within a few feet of her mother's gravesite, which for decades was the only one in the family to have been marked with a tombstone.<ref name="vpbio"/><ref name="Baltimore City News">{{cite news |first=Van |last=Smith |title=Wonder Woman: The Life, Death, and Life After Death of Henrietta Lacks, Unwitting Heroine of Modern Medical Science|url=http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3426 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040814160109/http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3426|archive-date=August 14, 2004|newspaper=[[Baltimore City Paper]] |date=April 17, 2002 |access-date=September 19, 2016}}</ref><ref name=JHM2000>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0400web/01.html | last=Skloot| first=Rebecca |title=Henrietta's Dance |magazine=Johns Hopkins Magazine |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University]] |date=April 2000 |access-date=October 12, 2016 }}</ref> In 2010, [[Roland Pattillo]], a faculty member of the [[Morehouse School of Medicine]] who had worked with George Gey and knew the Lacks family,{{sfn|Skloot|2010|page=page 231}} donated a headstone for Lacks.<ref name="vpbio2"/> This prompted her family to raise money for a headstone for Elsie Lacks as well, which was dedicated on the same day.<ref name=vpbio2/> The book-shaped headstone of Henrietta Lacks contains an epitaph written by her grandchildren that reads:<ref name="vpbio"/>
<div style="text-align:center">{{poemquote|
|text=<!-- or: 1= -->Henrietta Lacks, August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951
In loving memory of a phenomenal woman,
In March 2013, researchers published the [[DNA]] sequence of the [[genome]] of a strain of HeLa cells. The Lacks family discovered this when the author [[Rebecca Skloot]] informed them.<ref name=RitterSeattleTimes/> There were objections from the Lacks family about the genetic information that was available for public access. Jeri Lacks Whye, a grandchild of Henrietta Lacks, said to ''[[The New York Times]]'', "the biggest concern was privacy—what information was actually going to be out there about our grandmother, and what information they can obtain from her sequencing that will tell them about her children and grandchildren and going down the line." That same year another group working on a different HeLa cell line's genome under [[National Institutes of Health]] (NIH) funding, submitted it for publication. In August 2013, an agreement was announced between the family and the NIH that gave the family some control over access to the cells' DNA sequence found in the two studies along with a promise of acknowledgement in scientific papers. In addition, two family members will join the six-member committee that will regulate access to the sequence data.{{efn-ua|"The Lacks family and the N.I.H. settled on an agreement: the data from both studies should be stored in the institutes' database of genotypes and phenotypes. Researchers who want to use the data can apply for access and will have to submit annual reports about their research. A so-called HeLa Genome Data Access working group at the N.I.H. will review the applications. Two members of the Lacks family will be members. The agreement does not provide the Lacks family with proceeds from any commercial products that may be developed from research on the HeLa genome."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/science/after-decades-of-research-henrietta-lacks-family-is-asked-for-consent.html|title=A Family Consents to a Medical Gift, 62 Years Later|last=Zimmer|first=Carl|date=August 7, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=December 12, 2016}}</ref>}}<ref name=RitterSeattleTimes/>
-In October 2021, Lacks's estate filed a lawsuit against [[Thermo Fisher Scientific]] for profiting from the HeLa cell line without Lacks's consent,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/henrietta-lacks-family-sues-company/2021/10/04/810ffa6c-2531-11ec-8831-a31e7b3de188_story.html?carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F34e1aa4%2F615c77ec9d2fda9d41fde1ff%2F5976766bae7e8a6816d6be0f%2F42%2F74%2F615c77ec9d2fda9d41fde1ff |title=Legal Issues: 70 years ago, Henrietta Lacks's cells were taken without consent. Now, her family wants justice. |first1=Emily |last1=Davies |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |date=October 4, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://endpts.com/estate-of-henrietta-lacks-sues-thermo-fisher-over-the-improper-sale-of-her-immortal-cells/|title=Estate of Henrietta Lacks sues Thermo Fisher over the improper sale of her immortal cells|first=Zachary|last= Brennan|website=Endpoints|date=October 4, 2021}}</ref> asking for "the full amount of [Thermo Fisher's] net profits".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/05/us/henrietta-lacks-estate-sues-biotech-company/index.html |title=Estate of Henrietta Lacks sues biotechnical company for nonconsensual use of her cells |first1=Taylor |last1=Romine |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=October 5, 2021}}</ref>
+In October 2021, Lacks's estate filed a lawsuit against [[Thermo Fisher Scientific]] for profiting from the HeLa cell line without Lacks's consent,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/henrietta-lacks-family-sues-company/2021/10/04/810ffa6c-2531-11ec-8831-a31e7b3de188_story.html?carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F34e1aa4%2F615c77ec9d2fda9d41fde1ff%2F5976766bae7e8a6816d6be0f%2F42%2F74%2F615c77ec9d2fda9d41fde1ff |title=Legal Issues: 70 years ago, Henrietta Lacks's cells were taken without consent. Now, her family wants justice. |first1=Emily |last1=Davies |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] |date=October 4, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://endpts.com/estate-of-henrietta-lacks-sues-thermo-fisher-over-the-improper-sale-of-her-immortal-cells/|title=Estate of Henrietta Lacks sues Thermo Fisher over the improper sale of her immortal cells|first=Zachary|last= Brennan|website=Endpoints|date=October 4, 2021}}</ref> asking for "the full amount of [Thermo Fisher's] net profits".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/05/us/henrietta-lacks-estate-sues-biotech-company/index.html |title=Estate of Henrietta Lacks sues biotechnical company for nonconsensual use of her cells |first1=Taylor |last1=Romine |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=October 5, 2021}}</ref> On July 31, 2023, Thermo Scientific settled with the Lacks family under undisclosed terms.<ref name="apnews_20230801_thermosettlement">{{cite news | last = Skene | first = Lea | date = August 1, 2023 | title = Thermo Fisher Scientific settles with family of Henrietta Lacks, whose HeLa cells uphold medicine | url = https://apnews.com/article/henrietta-lacks-hela-cells-thermo-fisher-scientific-bfba4a6c10396efa34c9b79a544f0729 | publisher = AP News | access-date = August 1, 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230801160640/https://apnews.com/article/henrietta-lacks-hela-cells-thermo-fisher-scientific-bfba4a6c10396efa34c9b79a544f0729 | archive-date = August 1, 2023 | url-status = live }}</ref>
==Recognition==
[[File:Henrietta Lacks historical marker; Clover, VA; 2013-07-14.JPG|thumb|A [[historical marker]] memorializing Henrietta Lacks in Clover, Virginia]]