"Homo species" is the name of the human race in anthropological terminology. What do we call cloned people and those who have been genetically modified?
"Homo species" is the name of the human race in anthropological terminology. What do we call cloned people and those who have been genetically engineered? Shall we call them "Homo Cloningus"? Maybe yes and maybe not. In any case, it is about something that is different from what we know. Since the birth of these is to a large extent the product of research and laboratory experiments, a situation may well arise in which, as a result of the accumulation of ever-increasing knowledge in everything related to cloning and genetic engineering, it will be possible to give those who are born desirable traits and produce a perfect person not by nature, but by an industrial production line, a chilling idea which found its expression in Aldous Huxley's classic book "Brave New World". Since this is an artificial procedure that is the product of a desire on the part of those with genetic knowledge to give birth to a man or a woman under laboratory conditions from a narrow point of view, although it is still difficult to understand the full meaning, this is a person who, in terms of the goals set by his creators, is a product like any other product. is that so? Whether there are those who treat him as a product or whether there are those who treat him as a person, what will the law say about that? What will be his legal status? Seemingly esoteric questions, but the ethical questions arising here are weighty and the legislator will have to take this into account.
A seemingly simple case is a situation in which two spouses want to give birth to a boy or girl who will have qualities they themselves do not have, but they will achieve what they want through the contribution of d. N. A of another person endowed with these qualities, such as high intellectual abilities, high athletic ability, blue eyes and so on. The donor can come and say: "I also have a part in this child" and ask to take part in the education and upbringing of this child. He or she will be considered an additional father or mother. Will it be possible to add him/her to the family unit as an organic part of it or will it be shared from the outside in terms of partial parentage. If this is the solution he finds as desired, what will be his/her relative share in the child's education? If the embedded trait is dominant and of decisive significance in terms of his/her achievements as an adult, will this partial parentage be "calculated" according to the expected success of the child as an adult, and how is this potential relative part determined? If the genetic donor waives parental participation in the first place, will it be necessary to sign him with an echo donation? N. A about a waiver letter?
Another situation is that of a single mother who, in addition to the sperm donation, also receives a genetic donation. It is possible that the sperm donor will give up paternity but the genetic donor will see themselves as a part-time father or mother due to the genetic traits he or she is donating. Should we grant him/her and how much? If both the sperm donor and the genetic donor want to take part in raising the child actively full time and the mother will have the option to choose one of them without marriage since she does not want an emotional relationship who will she choose? The relationship with that parent will be a functional relationship only. Is it desirable?
And if that third party parent decides to cut off his/her commitment, paternity or motherhood, what is his/her judgment? Should this be treated as an act of divorce or divorce-like in relation to the biological parents? He or she is not in a conjugal relationship with one of them and at that time he or she had any requirement to be part of the family unit even if she came from outside. Should I demand alimony from him/her in the garden of that trait that was instilled in the child? To what extent will he/she have to participate if that boy or girl was born with blue eyes because the biological parents wanted it? Will the alimony requirement be lower than those that were embedded in, for example, stage talents? If the same boy or girl gains a high intellectual ability and as a result a lot is invested in them so that they can realize this potential, will the parents who are a third party be charged higher child support fees because of this?
If we go one step further with a futuristic view, even if it is extreme, it could be that because of the same trait, the boy or girl with the beggram accumulates wealth and for whatever reason they die young and have not yet started families and the biological parents and the third party parent are still alive. How do you divide the estate? There are potentially three options here. One option is to divide the estate equally between the three parents. Second option, the biological parents get half of the estate and the third party parent gets the other half.
Third option The third-party parent receives the proportional share according to the degree of contribution of the attribute donated to the child when he/she becomes an adult. If that child became, thanks to this contribution, an outstanding athlete with rare achievements, this trait is dominant in relation to the other traits. How do you determine what the financial contribution of this ability is? An extreme case is the one in which this quality overshadows the other qualities and in the case of the death of the owner of the quality, the donor can come and say that these children achieved their achievements only because of him and will try to deprive the biological parents of any right to the estate. It is hard to say that it is moral and just.
If Aldous Huxley's prediction comes true, will it be possible to issue a patent on these human beings? What will be the validity of this patent and will the principle of copyright apply here as well? If someone wants to produce this or that model of people, will he have to pay rewards? If the validity of the patent expires, will the procedure be the same as in the case of generic drugs?
Another possibility presented in the science fiction literature is the ability to bring the baby born in laboratory conditions to rapid physiological growth, within a few days or even less, to the dimensions of an adult. There is a new situation here. A man or woman is physiologically mature but mentally they are nothing more than babies. They will need a lot of help until they stand on their own and can act as independent people. They will need a guardian until they are mentally mature. How long will they need this guardianship and who will determine if they are adults or not? It may be that the producers of those people will see them as private property and as such they will find it appropriate that they can be sold to anyone with the highest price. We then learned that it would be possible to trade in human beings and thus the technologies of genetic engineering and cloning would bring back slavery through the back door and as a result there would be first-class citizens and second-class citizens.
The questions presented here are considering the tip of the iceberg of the problems that will arise with the continued development of genetic engineering and cloning. Most likely, the future holds more problems in this sensitive area. It is difficult to know if a satisfactory legal solution will be found for all the problems. It is impossible to stop the research, but it must be remembered that everyone who will be genetically modified and every cloned person are first and foremost human beings. Even if they differ from us in one way or another, the proper guideline that will need to be followed is that the good of these human beings is absolute and stands against any other consideration.
This article is intended to be published in the journal "The Law" published by the Law School of the College of Administration
