Where do we go? – Bioethical and Criminal Law Response to the Concept of Reprogenetics

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The list of challenges that bioethics faces regarding life sciences is increasing proportionately with the galloping development of biomedical sciences. One of the actual matters is the concept of the so-called reprogenetics and the need to specify its meaning vis-à-vis eugenics. This paper will elaborate the term of eugenics and its negative dimension derived from the Nazi eugenics programs, the ideas of modern eugenic movements; the key difference that the eugenics is always focussed at the society as a whole in order to provide «clean» future generations, while reprogenetics is carried out on an individual level - for example, the future parents may decide to create an embryo «clean» of mutated genes etc. From a bioethical and criminal point of view, it is not the same whether healthy offspring will be obtained through deprivation of life or sterilization of carriers of severe hereditary diseases, by aborting foetuses with detected anomalies or by creating healthy embryos. The first case is extremely unethical and illegal; the second is disputable due to the differences in the national treatment of reproductive rights, while in the latter, there is no entity (embryo, foetus or person) whose right would be violated.