Moralna wartość ludzkiego genomu

Abstract

The knowledge and practical actions in the sphere of human genetic heritage puts forward a number of questions from the domain of ethics that cannot be answered by referring only to biochemical terms. Hence development of molecular biology and genetics are constantly accompanied by a bioethical discussion on the borders of research and of interventions in the human genome. The article belongs to this current as it justifies the foundations of the responsible ethics of the borders. The fundamental moral norm in this respect is the fact that the genome, as the genetic information concerning the man’s somatic sphere, participates in the dignity of the human person. Justification of this norm requires that in the reflection on the ethical side of this problem the holistic anthropological vision should be kept. This will allow maintaining the discourse in the sphere of reflection on man treated not only as an object, but mainly as the subject of the interventions in the human genome. In its starting point the article describes the genome, using knowledge from molecular biology and genetics. In its further part it discusses the personalist conception of human corporeality, and in consequence it indicates the fact that the genome participates in human person’s dignity and rights.