Human rights in the postgenomic era: Challenges and opportunities arising with epigenetics

Abstract

Over the past twenty-five years, international organizations have adopted human rights declarations in an attempt to address emerging ethical, legal and social concerns associated with genetic research and technologies. While these declarations point to important challenges and potential issues in genetics, the focus on genetics has been criticized for promoting the idea that there is something unique about our genes, and that therefore, they deserve special protections in our laws. It is also argued that this ‘genetic exceptionalism’ perspective has contributed to a reinvigoration of genetic essentialism and determinism. In this article, we add to this criticism by pointing out gaps and flaws in current gene-focused human rights declarations in light of recent developments in the field of epigenetics. First, we show that these documents do not provide guidance for a responsible governance of epigenetic data (e.g., privacy protection) and an ethical use of individual epigenetic information (e.g., nondiscrimination). This is particularly concerning given the interest recently demonstrated by insurance companies, forensic scientists and immigration agencies in using epigenetic clock technologies. Second, we argue that findings in epigenetics could contribute to the promotion of second- and third- generation human rights, i.e., respectively, economic, social and cultural rights, and solidarity rights. We conclude by calling for international bioethics and human rights organizations to pay greater attention to epigenetics and other postgenomic sciences in the coming years.

Rage against robots: Emotional and motivational dimensions of anti-robot attacks, robot sabotage, and robot bullying

“…Efforts to draft and enforce some form of robot rights may provide ways of stemming or at least mitigating the attacks directed at robots by humans (Bennett and Daly, 2020;Coeckelbergh, 2010;Darling, 2016;Lemley and Casey, 2019;Mosakas, 2021). Declarations of rights are often used to resolve difficult practical and moral conflicts with the individuals involved by making various assertions (Dupras et al, 2020). As of today, robots have not made such assertions except in the case of few demonstrations staged by humans; however, robot development pioneer Rodney Brooks declares that robots would at some point rise up and demand their rights (Brooks, 2000).…”

Epigenetics as a New Challenge in the Legal Field

“…Epigenetics findings could contribute to the promotion of second-and third-generation human rights, i.e. economic, social, cultural and solidarity rights, by calling on international bioethics and human rights organisations to pay more attention to epigenetics and other post-genomic sciences in the coming years (Dupras, Joly and Rial-Sebbag, 2020). included 118 peer-reviewed articles, commentaries and editorials published in English academic journals between 2000 and 2017 that had more than 10 citations in the Google Scholar database.…”

Researcher perspectives on ethics considerations in epigenetics: an international survey

“…When it comes to the risks of misuse of individual epigenetic information, policies have been adopted by many countries over the past 25 years to prevent genetic discrimination [20]. However, because these policies focus on "genetic characteristics" and "the results of genetic tests, " they don't seem to provide a regulatory framework for the use of epigenetic information [21,22]. This gap in oversight may be problematic considering the growing interest of multiple stakeholders in using epigenetic technologies, including life insurance companies, forensic investigators [23][24][25][26][27] and immigration agencies [28][29][30].…”