International Regulation of Relations of Biomedicine: Interaction of Law and Morality

Abstract

At the international level, relations in the field of biomedicine are governed by mass ofdocuments with statements containing in most cases principles and rules of bioethics,which are not compulsory. The conversion of these ethical norms to the level of nationallaw requires their proper legalisation, and the relevant international legal acts and first ofall the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Beingwith regard to the application of biology and medicine should be its reference standard.The analysis shows that only one of all bioethical principles, “beneficence”, stipulatedin Article 2 of the Convention (according to which “interests of society and welfareof the human being shall prevail over the sole interest of society or science”), did notreceive an adequate legal interpretation. The legal incorrectness of this article’s wording, dealing not with human rights, but with human interests and well-being, is one of thefactors that hinders the signing of the Convention. At the same time, this formulationis not accidental: the Convention’s intention not only to ensure the rights of subjectsduring biomedical researches, but also to protect those human interests, that maysuffer from the dehumanising effect of biotechnologies, was expressed in it. At present,this regulatory potential of the Convention, aimed according to its Preamble to protectbenefit of future generations, has not received proper development. In practice, thesearch for real guarantees from the negative impact of biotechnologies on the evolutionof mankind as a biological genus and social community goes in the field of the publicmorality, the corporate morality of the biomedical community and the individual moralityof researchers. Moreover, the latter is perhaps the main (though not reliable) defenceagainst the uncontrolled development of biotechnologies. In this situation, an importantdirection of efforts to find the optimal balance of legal and moral regulators in the fieldof creation and application of biotechnologies should be guaranteeing the rights ofresearchers to publicise their fears about the harm that biomedical technologies are ableto carry for the whole humanity.
For citation: Lapaeva V.V. (2019) International Regulation of Biomedicine: Interaction of Law and Morality. Pravo. Zhurnal Vysshey shkoly ekonomiki, no 2, pp. 22–44 (in Russian) DOI: 10.17-323/2072-8166.2019.2.22.44