Human Rights

Human rights law and discourse help to ensure respect for individual worth and the common good in the face of powerful biotechnologies. Claims to universal human rights depend, in part, on formal recognition of our common humanity. Drawing on human rights as a broad framework for establishing policies regarding human biotechnologies, both the Council of Europe’s Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo Convention) and UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights  reject genetic modifications that would alter the genomes of future generations.


CGS-authored

What do recent advances in molecular genetics have to do with human rights? Quite a lot, it turns out. And key human rights documents have recognized this for some time.

Over the past few years, new “gene editing” tools that...

Biopolitical Times
The “Geneva Statement” is a robust and cautionary statement about the future of heritable genome editing that brings new voices and perspectives to a conversation that has so far been dominated by scientists and bioethicists.
Internal Content

To: The Biden-Harris Administration

From: Marcy Darnovsky, PhD, Executive Director, Center for Genetics and Society[1]

December 2020

 

Heritable...

Landscape photo of green field and a blue sky with clouds.

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Mary Mallon, foreground, became known as Typhoid Mary and died after being quarantined for 23 years. (Wikimedia)

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George Church is the central subject of the photo, with book shelves in the background.

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Lamp post sign reads "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor's Center." On the building is a sign that is directed to the sun light. Its shadow reads: "Today's problems are solvable"

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The enormous AIDS memorial quilt is colorfully laid on the ground, with the Washington Monument standing in the background.

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Drawing of a trachea

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Scientist holds a transparent DNA profile, stained with purple markings.

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