Human Rights, Dignity, and the Science of Genetic Engineering
Social Philosophy Today 22:43-57 (2006)
| Abstract | In the past decade several international declarations have called for banning reproductive non-therapeutic and germ-line engineering. Article 11 of UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights states that practices that are contrary to human dignity such as cloning of human beings should not be permitted. Article 12 of the same declaration restricts genetic applications to the relief from suffering and the improvement of health. The European Council has also taken a strong stand on germ-line genetic engineering in general and cloning in particular. Article 13 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine simply forbidsgerm-line engineering except for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. The convention along with its explanatory report make it clear that the rationale for the decision is based, in large part, on the need to protect the dignity of persons.Several notions of dignity have been advanced to support bans on non-therapeutic germ-line engineering. I argue that they fail to provide a rationale for such a ban. I consider both secular and religious views of human dignity. In addition, I argue that there are forms of germ-line and non-therapeutic engineering that are compatible with human rights | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,709 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesKatherine Eddy (2007). On Revaluing the Currency of Human Rights. Politics, Philosophy and Economics 6 (3):307-328.
Gan Shaoping & Zhang Lin (2009). Human Dignity as a Right. Frontiers of Philosophy in China 4 (3):370 - 384.
Council of Europe (1997). Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with Regard to the Application of Biology and Biomedicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 7 (3):277-290.
Thérèse Murphy (ed.) (2009). New Technologies and Human Rights. Oxford University Press.
Glenn Hughes (2011). The Concept of Dignity in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Journal of Religious Ethics 39 (1):1-24.
Fabrice Jotterand (2010). Human Dignity and Transhumanism: Do Anthro-Technological Devices Have Moral Status? American Journal of Bioethics 10 (7):45-52.
Shaoping Gan (2009). Human Dignity as a Right. Frontiers of Philosophy in China 4 (3):370-384.
Jean-Marie Thévoz (1991). Germ-Line Engineering: A Few European Voices. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 16 (6).
Doris Schroeder (forthcoming). Human Rights and Human Dignity. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice.
Martin Gunderson (2007). Seeking Perfection: A Kantian Look at Human Genetic Engineering. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 28 (2):87-102.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads9 ( #114,230 of 550,967 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,425 of 550,967 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
