Limits of Interference into the Human Genome

Abstract

Introduction: The use of advances in genomics in practical medicine can positively affect the quality of services in the healthcare sector, as well as the results of applied medical research. Objectives: The purpose of the article is to research regulatory and scientific approaches to the concept of the human genome as an object of legal relations, as well as to determine the limits of interference into a human being’s genomic integrity. Materials and methods: Regarding the chosen subject matter of research, the author while preparing the scientific article has used materials of international regulatory legal acts, Ukrainian and foreign legal literature. To achieve the set aim, the author has used general scientific and special methods of scientific cognition. These methods combined with the scientific principles of objectivity, scientificity and reasonableness, have provided a comprehensive research of the limits of interference into the human genome. Results: The concept of the human genome, as well as its material and non-material components, have been studied from a biological and legal point of view. The private and legal nature of the human genome as a personal non-property good has been defined. The concept of the individual’s integrity, enshrined in international regulatory legal acts, has been analyzed from the point of view of its coverage of a human being’s genomic integrity. It has been established that a violation of genomic integrity is possible both by the intentional actions of third parties and as a result of genome changes due to the action of natural factors. The concepts and types of the human genome editing have been defined. The potential reasons for banning the editing of human germline cells have been critically analyzed. The legal nature of interference into the human genome from the point of view of eugenical practices has been studied. The author has studied the possibility of classifying the use of vaccines on the mRNA platform as interferences into the human genome. Conclusions: It has been concluded that there is a need to recognize the human genome as a personal non-property good, and, accordingly, as an object of private rights. The author has stated own point of view on the inadmissibility of arbitrary interference into human genomic integrity and the existing types of interference into the human genome.