The University of Southern Maine is set to host a lecture featuring descendants of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cancer cells continue to have an impact on medicine more than 60 years after they were taken while she was under anesthesia.
Family members of Lacks are scheduled to speak on Oct. 13 to discuss her legacy.
The cells have been widely used in biomedical research. They came from a tumor sample taken from Lacks - who never gave permission for their use. Her relatives are to speak at the Maine university about ethics, race and the commercialization of human tissue.
Henrietta Lacks' grandson Alfred Carter Jr. and great-granddaughter Veronica Robinson are set to speak.
Lacks' story was made into a book and a cable television movie starring Oprah Winfrey.
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