Immortal Cells

For today's class we talked about the third part of the Henrietta Lacks book. This part of the book kind of made me very angery with the way that the family was being treated with people acting like they wanted to help but they were really looking out for themselves. It made me even more mad when their cousin also was trying to use them to get money and information about their mother. This is all relevant in today's world because people still do this today. People who are not as well off as other people will get used by them in order to better themselves and the people on teh bottom will be left no better off then they were in the beginning. I think that major concern in this part of the book dealt with the fact of who the cells belonged to. while the courts made a ruling that doctors can keep any part of you that was left behind i think that this is wrong. if a doctor or a scientist wants to use a part of you whether you are dead or alive to consuct research then they should have to get permission from you if you are alive or from you family members if you are dead. i also feel like the Lacks family deserved better treatment then they did considering noone was ever asked if they can have the cells. when it comes to using people's cells the researchers should have to disclose everything that they want to do with them and not just tell people what they want to hear to get them to cooperate. i feel like this may still happen today with doctors that are unethical but i feel like with their being laws about having consent forms it is occuring less and less. in a way Henrietta Lacks paved the way to a more ethical medical feild and without her or her kids we wouldnt be where we are today medically.