Debate from class

I think that debate from class was interesting. Being on the chalkboard side I had a difficult time fully backing the idea that people should be sacrificed  for the many. I'm not sure where I stand on this issue. I think that sacrificing individual rights shouldn't be done, but at the same time progress needs to be made. Or even in the example John gave us, the CDC containing a town of people infected with SARS, would be beneficial to the public. If that wasn't done, who knows how many more people would have been infected. When it comes to the issue of cells and tissues, like Henrietta's case, I think that it leans more towards maintaining individual rights in my opinion. It seems like a violation to those rights to me when something of yours (cells, tissue, organs, etc.) is taken without your consent. Just because they don't plan on using what they took for research doesn't mean that they shouldn't tell you that it will be used. I think that they should get your consent. I understand the idea that once you leave the doctor's office you are in a sense "abandoning"  what you left behind and anyone is allowed to take it. It is the same thing with any garbage you put out, anyone can take it because you threw it away. I don't necessarily agree with this but that is how it is done.