LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- Lee Silver, a Princeton University biologist and geneticist renowned for his work in the realm of bioethics, will present the Rider University Theme Program's annual spring keynote lecture on Thursday, March 4, from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Student Center Theater on Rider's Lawrenceville campus.

The lecture, titled "How Genetic Engineering Will Change the American Family and the Future of the Human Race," highlights the continuing four-year exploration by Rider students of the many aspects of the theme "2001: To the Millennium and Beyond."

Silver is the author of the acclaimed 1998 book Remaking Eden: How Genetic Engineering & Cloning Will Transform the American Family. He entertains readers with fictionalized stories on the near and distant future in which the genetic engineering of humans invites us to design the perfect children we want, raises the possibility that homosexual couples could have a genetically related child of their own, and even leads to the development of genetically different human subspecies.

His persuasive arguments and stories all carry the same message: the technology to do all of this and more is already in hand, and ultimately governments will not be able to stop market forces and parents' desires from making these possibilities reality.

The lecture is free and open to the public. A question and answer session will conclude Silver's presentation, followed by a book signing and reception in the Student Center Lobby.

Rider University's Lawrenceville campus is located five miles south of Princeton and three miles north of Trenton on Route 206 in Lawrence Township, NJ. The campus is one-half mile south of exit 7A of Interstate 95.