Human Tissue Censorship

The collection and use of human tissue samples, from the deceased or living, is a practice doctors and surgeons perform to be able to undergo research on diseases, cancers, and the functionality of tissues in the human body. While there are many issues surrounding the use of human cells and tissues in scientific research, the main problem pertains to morality and subsequently ownership and consent. Laws today state that patients must give consent to donate tissue samples to doctors for this procedure because while living, a person has ownership over their body and all that is inside it. When dead however, it is neatly illustrated that there is no legal owner of a dead human body or its parts. I believe people should be given legal ownership
Being that blood samples and other excised human tissues have an afterlife, when scientists take tissue samples after a person has died, it's much like those scientists are taking a part of that person nonetheless. As the New York Times writes in the article ‘Taking the Least of You’, “Slavin was one of the first people in history to decide that... he would maintain complete control over any blood and tissues removed from his body... He would determine who used them for research and who made money from them.” This example highlights the strong sense of ownership that is natural for people and the morality that should be rule in the field of science and its research involving humans. Making profit from research of a person's tissue without their knowledge is a form of theft. If people have ownership of their bodies while they are living, those people, or chosen relatives, should also have ownership over the tissues in their bodies that continue to live after death. In the article, ‘Immortal Cells,
Laws concerning tissue samples not only lead to controversy due to discoveries from human tissues, but also harm families by exploiting DNA and continuing to not include them in the success for the contribution to the research and discoveries in the science field. One of the most well known cases of this incident is HeLa, exploited in the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” written by Rebecca Skloot. HeLa, the immortal cells which were taken without consent from Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman who died from cervical cancer, were a major discovery to science in the 1900’s. It wasn't until more than 20 years after the death of Henrietta Lacks that her family learned of this ‘immortality’ and the multimillion dollar industry made from the cells where the family never saw any of the profits. This exposes doctrine and science as unjust as it exploits the weak and the poor and takes advantage of patients. If laws would allow people to take ownership of the things in their bodies, people might be more willing to help science progress with the use of human tissue samples, especially if people were granted some of the money made from the discoveries from their bodies. A company involved in the study of BRCA genes demonstrated this ignorance by creating patents on the genes. In the article ‘Can the Human