ANTH 2346: General Anthropology
Ethics and Social Responsibility Exercise
In the 1960’s an anthropologist and medical researcher, collected approximately 2,000 blood samples from a people (we will call them the San Jac) living in a remote area of the Amazon rain forest. The researchers told them that they were collecting the blood to check it for diseases. The San Jac received many desirable gifts, like steel axes and machetes, in return for their participation.
50 years later, some of the San Jac have discovered that rather than simply checking the blood for their benefit and then discarding it, the blood was frozen and stored in 5 different universities in the United States and at an American cancer research center. With today’s technology, we can learn much about human diversity from the DNA samples that can be obtained from it, as you have learned in this class. Researchers at those institutions have been using the blood of the San Jac in their research and would like to continue to do so.
Several different groups within the San Jac have written letters requesting the return of their blood. In the letters, they state that 50 some years, ago, they had not understood that the blood was to be kept. In the beliefs of the people, all the remains and possessions of the dead must be destroyed to free their soul for its journey to the afterlife. They are deeply disturbed that the souls of their people are not at rest.
Question: Should the blood be returned to the San Jac?
Guidelines for your response:
1. Clearly state your opinion in a thesis statement
2. Clearly discuss the two views of the needs of science versus the need to respect humans and their beliefs.
3. Write a conclusion that comments on anthropological ethics and social responsibility. Did the original researchers do “the right thing” in obtaining the blood?