ISSUE 4 : GENE EDITING ENHANCES THE QUALITY AND DIGNITY OF HUMAN

LIFE

1. Respecting human dignity means putting the individual human and his or her interests

before those of his or her possible descendants, social group or the like. This is laid down

in the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights of 19 October 20051, whose

Article 3.2 reads: “The interests and welfare of the individual should have priority over

the sole interest of science or society”, which reproduces Article 2 of the Oviedo

Convention2: “The interests and welfare of the human being shall prevail over the sole

interest of society or science”. Therefore, respect for human dignity would actually

require that we intervene in the human germline in order to preserve the interests of a

particular human being, disregarding the collective interest. According to that line of

reasoning, the value of human dignity actually prompts us to use genome editing for the

sake of the interests of individual human beings.

2. The principle of respect for persons requires recognition of the personal dignity of all

individuals, acknowledgment of the centrality of personal choice, and respect for

individual decisions.3 The individual dignity of an individual should prevail over the

dignity of the whole community. In the present matter, the decision of a person to

enhance his/her genes and acquire extraordinary traits is a dimension of his individual

dignity. Such gene enhancement will enhance the quality and dignity of human life and

thus must be respected irrespective of the interests of the society of the community as a

whole.

3
Rinie van Est et al., Rules for the digital human park: Two paradigmatic cases of breeding and
taming human beings—Human germline editing and persuasive technology 15 (2017).
3. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human states that ‘the

human genome, which by its nature evolves, is subject to mutations. 4 According to the

Nuffield Council, if certain parts of the world became inhabitable because of air pollution

or climate change, genome editing could offer a remedy to this predicament by allowing

the introduction of characteristics that will fit future generations better for the conditions

in which they may be required to live.5

4. With the help of human germline genome editing, desirable characteristics can be

improved in the living bodies by controlling the expressions of target genes.  The

technology may be used not only to eliminate the mutations of life-threatening disorders

but also to enhance “human capabilities” such as intelligence and appearance. 6 This shall

enhance the dignity of human life to make him a better personality who can fit into this

world.

5. Safe heritable genome editing could indeed be regarded as beneficial to human dignity, in

the sense that it could maximally advance people's autonomy by avoiding the birth of

individuals with serious diseases that would entail more personal limitations than

opportunities. In light of the aforementioned contentions, it is firmly established that ‘Ujjeevan

2.0’ developed by SUST is a technology for the benefit of humankind.

6. The Counsel most humbly submits that the development of ‘Ujjeevan 2.0’ is encouraging

the scientific temper of the State of Alana by introducing the technology which will

enhance the dignity of human life and giving the unfortunate ones an opportunity to

upgrade their capabilities. Moreover, the value and quality of human life will be

4
Françoise Baylis & Lisa Ikemoto, The Council of Europe and the Prohibition on Human Germline Genome
Editing, 18 EMBO Reports 2084 (2017).
5
European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies, Statement on Gene
Editing, https://ec.europa.eu/research/ege/pdf/gene_editing_ege_statement.pdf (accessed July 19, 2019).
6
On Human Gene Editing: International Summit Statement, The National Academics of Sciences Engineering
Medicine (Dec. 3, 2015) , https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2015/12/on-human-gene-editing-
international-summit-statement.
improved by using this form of human germline genome editing for therapeutic and

developmental purposes.