But I always have thought it was strange, if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?

I’m glad she did, cause that mean she helpin lots of people. I think she would like that. But I always have thought it was strange, if our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors? Don’t make no sense. People got rich off my mother without us even knowin about them takin her cells, now we don’t get

But it didn’t do no good for her, and it don’t do no good for us. If me and my sister need something, we can’t even go see a doctor cause we can’t afford it.

consent issue is overshadowed by a public responsibility to science: “I think people are morally obligated to allow their bits and pieces to be used to advance knowledge to help others.

When tissues are removed from your body, with or without your consent, any claim you might have had to owning them vanishes.

Many doctors tested drugs on slaves and operated on them to develop new surgical techniques, often without using anesthesia.

What they found was disturbing: in mission after mission, noncancerous cells grew normally in orbit, but HeLa became more powerful, dividing faster with each trip.

most individual cell lines and tissue samples aren’t worth anything on their own. Their value for science comes from being part of a larger collection.

when you go to the doctor for health care, your medical records and tissue samples can be used for research and nobody has to ask you’—