RIGHTS RELATING TO BIOETHICS
The research and application of biotechnologies, in the fields of both medicine and agriculture, represent an important challenge from the point of view of human rights. They involve issues that had not been considered by the international human rights system until very recently and include such controversial practices as cloning, stem cell research and the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture.
The legal regulation of these practices from the perspective of human rights is a clear aim of the emerging human rights. The following articles of the DEHR make reference to or mention issues relating to bioethics:
Title I. The right to egalitarian democracy
Article 1
The right to existence under conditions of dignity. All human beings and every community have the right to live under conditions of dignity.
This fundamental human right comprises the following rights:
5. The right to health, health care and medicines, which assures access to the best health technologies, to the enjoyment of a health system of prevention, surveillance and personalised care and the access to essential medicines. All individuals and communities have the right to the respect, by the scientific and technological developments in the field of health, and in particular in relation to genetic engineering, of the fundamental principles of the dignity of humans and of human rights.
Title V. The right to solidarity in democracy
Article 8
The right to solidarity in democracy. All human beings and every community have the right to the development and safeguarding of the rights of future generations.
This fundamental human right comprises the following rights:
1. The right to science, technology and scientific knowledge, which guarantees the access to scientific, technological and humanistic knowledge and the beneficial use of the results of such knowledge
2. The right to participate in the enjoyment of the universal common good, which guarantees the right to enjoy the cultural heritage of humanity, the Antarctic, the ultra terrestrial space and the celestial bodies, the bottom of the seas and oceans outside the limits of the jurisdictions of states, the biological resources of the high seas, the global climate, the works of the spirit of universal interest that form part of the public domain, all the cultures of the world and the human genome.
3. The system of the universal common good is based on the community and solidarity of all human beings, peoples and states, and entails the application of the principles of non-appropriation, that is, the use of the universal common good for exclusively peaceful purposes, the rational balanced use that watches out for the conservation and improvement of the goods, the peaceful settlement of conflicts, freedom of access without any discrimination whatsoever, and international supervision to ensure the full implementation and respect of the foregoing guiding principles.
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