Write Prompt 10/19/2012

If investigators had taken cells/tissues from one of my family members without consent, honestly I don't think I would be as upset as they were in the book , specifically talking about Deborah. Despite what she thinks, no harm came from taking the cells. Granted they probably treated her worse because she was black and intentionally didn't inform her because of this. But what it seems to come down to is the money issue and that most of the family (excluding Deborah) wanted compensation for it. I understand why and their point of view. I also understand that everyone has rights to their body and what happens to it, and yes I agree with this. However looking from another view point.. if someone is asked to donate their cells to science, I feel as if most people in today's day and age would say yes. Why wouldn't a person want to? What possible reason would someone have for not wanting to help and possibly advance science? Especially if it meant that it could potentially help their children and grandchildren one day. This is why Henrietta agreed to what she did. The doctors told her it could help her children and prevent them from getting the cancer that she had.

Although, what the doctors did may have been very unethical, it was also unintentional I think. They had no idea what would happen when they took those cells. Plus in that day and age laws did not exist as far as consent went, and the lines drawn for that were not very clear at all.
We read the book and look at Henrietta's case and we think it was so wrong because of all the ethical issues and all the laws in place today. But if we put ourselves in that time period would it still seem so bad? I doubt  it. It was a common occurrance, no, that does not make it right. 

I guess I would say that I'm kind of on the fence with a lot of these issues. I could argue them either way.