Bioethical Challenges of Human Genome Editing Technologies in Embryos

Abstract

Bioethical challenges associated with the development of human e mbryo genome editing technologies are being investigated. The role of bioethics as a fo­rum for discussing the interdisciplinary anthropological and ethical problems generated by the progress of biomedical technologies is noted. The basis of con­tradictions and discussions around the acceptability of the technologies under consideration is the value ambivalence associated with the difference between the artificial and the natural. Almost any innovation in the field of biology and medicine, and here genome editing technologies are no exception, since its in­ception has been at the epicenter of a sharp ideological confrontation between supporters of the progressive technological transformation of the world and their opponents from the camp of environmentally concerned people of bio-conserva­tive values. Progressive ideas are refined through ideas the life instrumenta­lization. Bio-conservative ideas are substantiated by the principle of natality H. Arendt, which is used by J. Habermas in criticizing neo-eugenic projects and supported by G. Jonas in the concept of ecological imperative. The problem of the moral status of embryos, the specific advantages and disadvantages of con­servative and liberal positions are analyzed, and a retroactive model of the moral status of embryos is proposed, which represents a specific social construction. The project of normative monitoring of the consequences of using human em­bryo genome editing technologies Sh. Yasanoff is discussed. Its connection with the ideas of ethics of responsibility of H. Jonas is established.