Welcome Freshmen. DNA Swabs, Please.

After reading the introductory paragraph of the article, I thought that taking DNA swabs from the students would be an okay thing since it says it would be done voluntarily. It could be very useful for the students to have this procedure if they want to know their tolerance for alcohol, lactose, and need for folic acid. I think these types of testing should be completely up to the student to decide since it is their own body. Also I don't think this test should be done if it is not 100% accurate because it may cause even more problems.

HeLa Research Paper Source

http://www.onearth.org/article/living-tissues

In this article the author starts off by telling the story of Henrietta Lacks and how HeLa cells began. The majority of the article is about the ethical issue of informed consent. The author includes examples from the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks relating to this issue. It proposes that human cells should not be treated so carelessly. This article would be most helpful to someone who is doing research about the topic of informed consent back in the 1950s and could be used to compare it to today's time.

Informed Consent

Q: How would you feel if you discovered that investigators had taken cells or tissues from some member of your family without consent?

A: My reaction to the cells being taken would depend on the outcomes of it. If the cells did not do much then I would not care all that much. For example, if they did not cure cancer or made some other huge contribution to science, or if it was just taken as procedure for running rests on a family member who has a serious illness. If the cells taken had something to do with the death of a family member I would care and feel hatred towards whoever was involved with taking them and feel sad at the same time. I would also feel anger and sadness if the cells taken became famous and known worldwide and my family member did not get anything out of it or at least have any formal recognition.