ends justifies the means

The phrase the end justifies the means refers to the morality of an action. It means that the morality of an action is based solely on the outcome of that action and not on the action itself

One of the main questions I continued to ask myself while reading Rebecca Skloot's book is whether it was the right thing to do. Solely based on the advancements in medicine due to her cells should justify the actions of the doctors at Johns Hopkins regardless of her rights. Of course by adding race and gender or wealth you can add more people to side with how wrong this actions was. But, when something controversial like this occurs, its natural to find any arguments you can to get more supporters.

Like Justin said in class, most likely during this time period what happened to Henrietta was happening to many African Americans. If the Lacks family said no to giving the doctors her cells, they took them anyway without consent, and ended up being normal cancer cells then I do not think her family would have such an issue.

If someone stole my grandfathers cells that ended up being immortal, I would not want money for what they did to him. For compensation, I would just want him to be recognized because his cells is what saved so many lives.

Brian G