March 07, 2003

Speaker looks at genetic control in U.S.

Paul Lombardo will address the legal and social history of eugenics—the movement to improve the human species by controlling hereditary factors—in a lecture on “Lifeguards at the Gene Pool: Genetic Challenges and the Mirror of History,” at 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 11, at California State University, Sacramento. The event will be held in the University Union Hinde Auditorium.

A renowned genetic scholar, Lombardo studies the history of eugenics and its implications on society. He has written extensively on the subject and served on panels regarding contemporary genetics issues—from genetic privacy to workplace genetic testing. His work on the 1927 Buck vs. Bell case decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld states’ rights to forcibly sterilize individuals for eugenic reasons, was instrumental in influencing the state of Virginia to issue an apology to its victims of mandatory eugenic sterilization.

For more information contact the Department of Biological Science at (916) 278-6535. For media assistance contact the CSUS public affairs office at (916) 278-6156.

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