SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
How private should your genetic information be? Can scientific researchers and pharmaceutical companies use your cells for the sake of scientific advancement? These are not just hypothetical questions. For the descendants of Henrietta Lacks, and for more and more patients and their families, these are pressing ethical questions that need answers and clear policies... 1. Should researchers be required to get your consent to use your cells? 2. How are different types of cancer categorized? 3. Do you think Henrietta would have given explicit consent to have a tissue sample used in medical research if she had been asked? Do you think she would have understood what was being asked for her? 4. What do the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the Mississippi Appendectomies suggest about the history of African Americans and medicine? 5. One of the arguments against giving people legal ownership of their tissues is summarized in the following quote from David Korn, vice provost...