Certain Bioethical Aspects of Personal Dignity in Genomics

Abstract

The paper deals with the constitutionalism and constitutionalization of certain provisions of genomics and bioethics at the present stage. The author analyzes constitutional domestic and foreign normative acts, the subject of which are relations in the field of genomics and the correlation of these relations with bioethics. The paper presents the opinions of Russian and foreign scientists regarding bioethics and related phenomena. The paper examines individual bioethical aspects, potential risks and threats, and searches for elements of the scientific concept of bioethical and somatic dignity of the individual in Russian legislation. The paper discusses the general issues of the legal regime of the human genome and the issues of genetic, genomic, biomedical research. The author raises the question of the balance of private and public interests as an optimal combination of personal interest and scientific ones. Having studied the legislation, the author speaks about the need to legally consolidate the definition of the concepts «genetic research with human participation» and «genomic research with human participation» at the federal level. The author expresses the opinion that the introduction of this conceptual apparatus into medical legislation would help to unify value-based legal approaches and models of legal regulation, and would also be the most important guarantee of the inviolability of human somatic dignity, eliminating unjustified risk and potential threats of subsequent biomedical research and experiments with human participation.The author concludes: the categories of bioethical and somatic dignity require further disclosure in Russian legislation and state policy in the field of biomedicine.