Human genetic modification: prospects, inevitability, and the question of moral-ethical justification

Abstract

The subject of this research is the genetic engineering of a human, risks it produces, prospects, and moral-ethical aspects. Technological progress inevitably leads to infiltration of cultural sphere into human corporeality through genetic engineering. The development of innovative technologies in the area of manipulation with the genetic code necessitates to choose how these technologies would be used. In this regard, there is a possibility of transition towards a new type of corporeality, not limited by biological predetermination alone, but rather culturally substantiated, being a result of implementation of the human-created project, which underlines the need for socio-humanitarian analysis conducted in this article. Viewing medicine as one of the fields of culture allows concluding that humanity to some extent has already faced certain projection with regards to human corporeality. In this aspect, medicine manifests as a tool for implementation of the project of a “healthy human”, and genetic engineering, as its part, would inevitably implement this project, and gradually expand the field of culture and fulfill the project of an “improved human” as a natural advancement of the idea of expansion of freedom through modification of corporeality.