scholarly journals Regulating genetic engineering guided by human dignity, not genetic essentialism

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Benjamin Gregg
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Current Generation ◽  
Guiding Principle ◽  
Democratic Community ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Genetic Essentialism ◽  
Human Genetic Engineering

Abstract How might a liberal democratic community best regulate human genetic engineering? Relevant debates widely deploy the usually undefined term “human dignity.” Its indeterminacy in meaning and use renders it useless as a guiding principle. In this article, I reject the human genome as somehow invested with a moral status, a position I call “genetic essentialism.” I explain why a critique of genetic essentialism is not a strawman and argue against defining human rights in terms of genetic essentialism. As an alternative, I propose dignity as the decisional autonomy of future persons, held in trust by the current generation. I show why a future person could be expected to have an interest in decisional autonomy and how popular deliberation, combined with expert medical and bioethical opinion, could generate principled agreement on how the decisional autonomy of future persons might be configured at the point of genetic engineering.

Human Dignity and the Foundations of Human Rights

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Tasioulas
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
Essential Role ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
In Virtue Of

This chapter investigates whether or not human rights are grounded in human dignity. Starting from an interest-based account of human rights, it rejects two objections to that account that have been pressed in the name of human dignity: the deontological and the personhood objections. More positively, it contends that human dignity is the equal moral status possessed by all human beings simply in virtue of their possession of a human nature, and that so understood, it has an essential role to play in grounding human rights, but that it can only play this role in tandem with universal human interests. In particular, human dignity is central to explaining both why humans can possess rights and why these rights are resistant to trade-offs. The chapter concludes with some reflections on the implications of this view for whether each and every human being possesses all of the standard human rights.

scholarly journals Liberal democracy and the genetic supermarket: Autonomy and freedom in Jürgen Moltmann’s political theology and biotechnology

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 301
Author(s):  
Manitza Kotzé
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
The Political ◽  
Human Genetic Engineering ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights

In this article, the concept of “liberal democracy” and its implications for biotechnology such as human genetic engineering will be examined. Liberal democracy is characterised by a number of features, some of which has extensive repercussions on biotechnology, especially concepts such as the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties, political freedom for all people and autonomy and libertarianism. Advocates of human genetic engineering for purposes other than the healing of genetically transmitted diseases often appeal to these features in the quest for its legalisation. I will examine whether the attributes of liberal democracy would indeed justify the use of this type of biotechnology and if yes, what a possible theological response would be, drawing on the political theology of Jürgen Moltmann.

scholarly journals Human Dignity as High Moral Status1

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Toscano
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Moral Status ◽  
High Rank ◽  
Hierarchical Order ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Moral Philosophers

In this paper I argue that the idea of human dignity has a precise and philosophically relevant sense. Following recent works, we can find some important clues in the long history of the term. Traditionally, dignity conveys the idea of a high and honourable position in a hierarchical order, either in society or in nature. At first glance, nothing may seem more contrary to the contemporary conception of human dignity, especially in regard to human rights. However, an account of dignity as high rank provides an illuminating perspective on the role it plays in the egalitarian discourse of human rights. In order to preserve that relational sense regarding human dignity, we can use the notion of moral status, to which some moral philosophers have paid attention in recent years. I explore the possibilities of the idea of moral status to better understand the idea of human dignity and its close relationship with human rights.

Justifying Freedom of Religion: Does ‘Dignity’ Help?

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Rivers
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Religious Liberty ◽  
Freedom Of Religion ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
Fundamental Reason ◽  
Political Traditions

Underlying the practice of the protection of freedom of religion in constitutional and human rights law is a debate about the justifications for such protection. Many of the arguments which have been offered during the emergence of the liberal democratic tradition from the seventeenth century onwards are instrumental or theological in nature. By contrast, modern justifications tend to be ‘dignitarian’ in character—non-instrumental and non-theological. Yet they struggle to identify religion as a sufficiently broad liberty-grounding good, or they dissolve freedom of religion into other rights of conscience, expression and association. In general, such dignitarian justifications fail to ground the practice of legally protected religious liberty in liberal democratic political traditions. One fundamental reason for this may lie in the anti-religious tendency of an emerging postmodern conception of human dignity.

Genetic Engineering between Promises and Dilemmas: A Philosophical Debate?

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateus Miguel Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Human Genome ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Genetic Manipulation ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Theoretical Contribution ◽  
Human Genetic Engineering ◽  
Michael Sandel

Human genetic engineering can be considered as one of the great transformations brought about by the discoveries of genetics. The possibility of modifying the human genome or carrying out investigations and changes in the hereditary genetic heritage, reveals, simultaneously, promises and dilemmas that go beyond private life, affecting Human Rights. So, based on conflicts of interest related to genetic manipulation techniques, philosophy was sought, especially with the theoretical contribution of Michael Sandel, through a brief bibliographic review, the justifications about support or opposition in proceeding with engineering. Genetics, aiming to understand the positions and interests, to find the best ethical answer to this ambivalence.

Energy in Public Administration - Between Human Rights and Efficient Administration

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-241
Author(s):  
Mirko Pecaric
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Reciprocal Relation ◽  
Legal Principles ◽  
Informal Practices

This paper explores recent notions in public administration, which are intertwined and addressed to the administration of public affairs. On this basis it demonstrates that content of legal system is filled through the static legal principles and rules, but they receive their real content through the informal practices and conditions of the human mind. The paper concludes that discussed notions could have only one name, because they all are the synonyms of reciprocal relation between the human dignity and efficient administration.

The Concept of Imago Dei as a Symbol of Religious Inclusion and Human Dignity

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-36
Author(s):  
Wojciech Szczerba
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Imago Dei ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Relational Concept ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
Protestant Theologian ◽  
Inclusive Theology

This article aims to examine how the concept of Imago Dei can serve as a symbol for the broadly understood idea of religious inclusion and human dignity. The article explores the concept of Imago Dei primarily from a protological perspective, analyzing its usage in biblical writings, theological tradition and modern philosophy. The substantial, relational and functional—which three usages of the concept can be found in the inclusive theology of Gregory of Nyssa—are analyzed in this article. Arguably, in the context of religious inclusion, the relational angle of Imago Dei seems to be the most important. Similarly contemporary Protestant theologian, Jürgen Moltmann states in his book, God in the Creation, that the “relational” concept of Imago Dei underscores the fundamental dignity of every person. In his book, God for Secular Society, Moltmann states that properly understood human rights should include democratic relationships between people, cooperation between societies, concern for the environment in which people live, and responsibility for future generations. From these perspectives, the concept of Imago Dei can be utilized as a symbol indicating the dignity of every person and human community, but also a symbol against any types of racism, nationalism or xenophobia.

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