Criminal law guarantees of human dignity and development of biotechnology

Abstract

The article examines the impact of biotechnology progress on changing criminal law. The author concludes that somatic rights do not constitute a new generation of human rights but enrich the dignity of the individual. Due to the natural nature of these rights, they can only be regulated to a small extent by law, which also limits the possibility of imposing prohibitions. Criminal law must address the task of guaranteeing the dignity of the individual. There is a need for clearer regulation of circumstances that exclude the crime of an act, such as the consent of the victim and reasonable risk. Criminalization of biotechnology applications where there were no signs of abuse should be considered unreasonable. Scientific progress has created uncertainty in the application of certain rules of criminal law. This requires the improvement of sentencing rules and the calculation of the statute of limitations of criminal prosecution. The need to criminalize new types of acts against the person, to introduce responsibility for crimes against artificial organs, as well as organs and tissues separated from a person, was analyzed. Issues of criminal legal assessment of illegal acts with human embryos are considered. It was concluded that it is necessary to include genetic information in the area of privacy protected by criminal law. An analysis of the development vectors of criminal law shows the impossibility of effective deterrence by prohibitions of certain ways of self-determination of the individual. The Russian legislator in this matter shows reasonable restraint. When further improving the criminal law, it is unacceptable to use the design of formal offences. As criminal-forming signs of prohibited acts, there can be both objective characteristics (the method of medical intervention caused by harm) and subjective ones — motive, purpose (for example, performing a sex reassignment operation for unlawful purposes). This will allow criminal law not to stand in the way of biotechnological progress, helping medical legislation determine some boundaries. The article analyses the norms of criminal law, the provisions of international conventions, and the practice of constitutional proceedings.