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CORVALLIS - A University of Massachusetts professor who has written extensively on human heredity and the history of genetic testing will give a free public lecture on Thursday, Jan. 17, at Oregon State University.

Diane Paul, whose work has been praised by scientists and humanists, will give a lecture titled "From Reproductive Responsibility to Reproductive Autonomy." It begins at 4 p.m. in Memorial Union Room 206.

Paul is the author of two books on the history of eugenics and human heredity in America. In her OSU lecture, she will discuss a recent historical shift in attitude that asserts procreation to be a basic human right that the state is obliged to protect. That shift has reversed an earlier, deeply held belief that the state should regulate birth and reproduction in the name of a higher social interest.

How that shift occurred, and what social impacts it has had, are part of Paul's analysis.

The lecture is part of an OSU lecture series called "The Human Genome: Historical and Contemporary Issues in Science, Law and Medicine." The series explores the consequences of the completion of the mapping of the human genome by considering the policy and ethical implications of this significant scientific achievement.

The lecture series is sponsored by the Thomas Hart and Mary Jones Horning Endowment in the Humanities at OSU.