Like many doctors of his time, Telind often used free hospital wards to research patients, usually without their knowledge, believing it was fair to use them as test subjects, as a form of payment. At this time, she had to deal with the incredible cultural incompetence and insensitivity of the biomedical profession, in which some cruel therapies were applied to her. Henrietta did not have a choice of where to go for help, both for economic reasons, and because of racism, assistance was provided to her without much involvement (Skloot, 2010). The Lacks family’s poverty made it difficult for them to communicate with the predominantly white, wealthy, and educated medical and scientific community, who had a completely different socio-economic background. Thus, the medical providers did not act in the interests of her well-being. Towards the end of the course, she found out about it and said that she would not have agreed to undergo this course of treatment if she had been told about it earlier (Skloot, 2010). The medical providers did not warn Henrietta about her fertility loss before starting cancer treatment, although such practice existed. The lack of trust shown by Johns Hopkins in treatment continues to influence her descendants’ attitude towards healthcare many of them had no health insurance to access medical procedures that HeLa cells allowed. Neither she, nor her family, nor her descendants received any monetary compensation, although pharmaceutical companies have made huge profits from the drugs developed using her cells (Skloot, 2010). Henrietta was directly harmed because she was not fully informed about the risks and benefits of undergoing cancer treatments and participating in research and indirectly damaged due to the impact her treatment had on descendants.
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