The Principle of Personal Autonomy and Heritable Genome Editing: Is a Deliberate Departure from the Autonomy of the Edited Person Admissible?

Abstract

Explicit appeals for the protection of individual autonomy in the hereditary editing of the human genome are increasingly being heard in the scientific literature. The author attempts to consider the category of personal autonomy through the prism of philosophy, ethics and law (including the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation) and to establish the possibility of its implementation when deciding on the editing of the embryo germline. An analysis of the multivariative nature of personal autonomy has shown that the full realization of autonomy is possible only by the individual himself, and this requires the search for other adaptive approaches to its implementation in the context of genomic editing technology. As a solution, it is proposed to consider the possibility of implementing the principle of individual autonomy when deciding on the editing of the embryo’s germline through compliance with the requirements of respect and protection of human dignity.