Conflicts of Interest

I really enjoyed the article. I think that this brings up many good points. But I have to admit that when we talked about this topic in class, it was hard for me to understand why it was a big deal just because I was thinking that if tobacco companies want to give money to these orgainzations, why can they not accept the money? Mainly because the fact of the matter is they need moeny for these organizations to actually research cancer. But after reading the article, I understand that if cancer organizations are taking money from these companies and sort of changing their focus so that they can accept the money given to them by these companies, that is a completely different story. I guess I was thinking that Phillip Morris gives money and supports many organizations that are against smoking. But the fact is that people like to smoke and even though everyone in the entire world knows it is bad, many people still smoke. I just thought that Phillip Morris supports these organizations to "call it good" and so that he can say, " Hey I do my part" and not catch any flack about everything. Lets face it though; people are still going to smoke.
Anyways, as I was thinking about it all, I thought that other organizations exist without taking money from the very people who they are up against. Think of Mother's Against Drunk Driving. I don't think I could take them as serious if they were backed by alcohol companies. Because alcohol companies want you to drink. And the more you buy to drink, the more money they make. And the ultimate goal of Mother's Against Drunk Driving is that people will not drink and drive, but more than that, not drink. Because as long as people drink, someone will always drive. It is the same thing with cancer research. There are reasons people get cancer and there are ways that people can prevent getting cancer. And those methods are just as important as the research to cure it.
When companies do this, it makes them less creditable. They don't need to accept money from the very people they are up against.