Editha Bensi, a working class home maker and mother of five from the Central Visayan island of Cebu, is another face of the diaspora. A vial of her blood appeared along side three others on the cover of the New York Times Magazine on April 26, 1998. Her family’s blood is a genetic gold mine: for generations the mutant gene considered to be the cause of cleft lip and palate disease has been running through their veins. Editha Bensi’s DNA is now part of the Human Genome Diversity Project, a detailed road map of disease genes that promises to one day provide an “operating schematic for mankind — a detailed picture of who we are and how we work.”
For her services she is given a plastic washtub, a beach ball and a thermos, a fast-food lunch, and candy and cookies for the children. On the agreement she signs with the project, the stated reason why she is not paid in cash is that “...money is a means of coercion, and compliance cannot be truly informed and voluntary if it is purchased.”
When the doctors come to take blood samples from Editha Bensi’s children, they struggle to free themselves from doctors’ grip and run away. Mrs. Bensi explains that they are fighters, that they have had to be because they are different. And when Operation Smile arrives with the opportunity for corrective facial surgery, Editha Bensi flatly refuses. The doctors and her husband attempt to persuade her, and she snaps, “You said it didn’t matter how I look.” So why did she agree to give blood to the geneticists? For the good of medical science? For the benefit of future generations? When asked, her answer is clear and simple, “Because they wanted it,” she says. “Because they asked.” How often had she and her family been regarded as the objects of fear, ridicule, and suspicion. Had she ever been approached before as the bearer of knowledge, the one holding the key to understanding the world?
According to the New york Times Magazine this family lives off of her husbands earnings of $2 a day sellings sacks door to door. And for them to just give a plastic washtub and candy?!
WTF. Give them money for the sake of Charity you dick. Give money for the sake of Appreciation. At least buy them a decent meal.
I know I'm 11 years late to say that but still.
ps. I still think my response to Joseph Gordon Levitt's new movie is "WTF, rly?!"
No comments:
Post a Comment