Review article
https://doi.org/10.34075/cs.55.1.3
Challenges of New Genetics in Contemporary Social and Moral Context - Ethical Evaluation of Possibilities and Risks
Mislav Kutleša
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Dario Kral
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This thesis paper examines contemporary advances in the field of genetics which, due to the vast improvement in scientific understanding of gene's role in the organism's life and development of various new biotechnologies, offers or promises to offer, new applications in healthcare and human enhancement which can be considered revolutionary. In this paper, we try to consider these advancements in contemporary social and moral context, most often understood through the term postmodernism. While we acknowledge huge potential benefits of these new biotechnologies, we argue that, since aforementioned contemporary context lacks clearly defined ethical standards and, furthermore, clear concept of human nature, there is a substantial risk of misuse of these biotechnologies. Most often, those risks are identified as being potential social risks concerning freedom and equality, but rarely are they thought in relation to the meaning or status of human person which is what we want to highlight. Furthermore, we identify exactly these problems as those that precede social problems. Having that in mind, we do not think that new biotechnologies create per se new hazards as much as they have potential to exaggerate those already existing. We present a thesis that, in contemporary context, new genetics is strongly influenced by market forces. Since new genetics intervenes in the architecture of life itself, giving it at human disposal like never before, life could become a commodity. We find that commodification of human life to be degrading for human person, which leads to gross abuses of personal and social values of human being. To counter those abuses, we believe the answer lies in having clearly defined as being the status of human person that has intrinsic value in itself, which is impossible without taking into account the transcendental value of human beings.
Keywords
genetics; gene modification; postmodernism; human body; person; human enhancement; designer babies; equality; freedom
Hrčak ID:
236172
URI
Publication date:
26.3.2020.
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