BIO-LAW AS A NEW GENERATION OF LAW

Abstract

The development of national and international biotechnology law in the context of new constitutional priorities, threats and challenges to life, public health and safety, is one of the current and yet under-researched topics in the scientific legal literature. Unfortunately, pro-gress in the life sciences is proceeding faster than the legal thinking that should accompany them. Breakthroughs in biology and medicine dictate the corresponding development of law, which today unfortunately lags chronically behind, resulting in gaps and contradictions between existing legal norms. As contemporary researchers have noted, and as is also evident in judicial practice, the issues of regulating the objects of bio-law - the body, life, procreation, self-identification, and ecology - mirror the contradictions of our society. The need to legally regulate the application of biotechnology has led to the formation of bioclaw as a new, integrated set of laws and, in the long term, as a branch of law of a new generation. As a response to the rapid introduction of advances in biotechnology into human life, we believe that bio-law must take into account the benefits and challenges associated with the impact of new technologies on the human body that may fundamentally alter the human condition as a physical individual. In this case, ethical issues, i. e. the requirements of bioethics, lead to a reflection on the content of bioethics in contemporary democracies and legal states. In particular, the introduction of technologies associated with gene editing, cloning, surrogacy, transplantation medicine, sex reassignment surgeries and other interventions into human nature, the consequences of which are not fully understood and threaten the physical and mental health of individuals, can cause irreparable harm to the spiritual, social, moral and ethical foundations of individuals, families, society, states and humanity as a whole. In our opinion, in the next few decades, bio-law will emerge as a global, integrated branch of law that simultaneously incorporates the norms of international law and national law. The main purpose of bio-law as a new branch of law is to counteract the global threat to humanity which consists in the emergence of a trend toward mass, large-scale changes to human nature and its unique natural qualities through the use of biotechnological advances. Therefore, the object of regulation and, accordingly, protection by this branch of law is not only the individual, his or her physical and spiritual health, but humanity as a whole, current and future generations. The uniqueness of bio-law as a new branch of law also lies in the fact that the individual, humanity, present and future generations are both the objects and subjects of law. The integrated nature of bioprinciples is manifested in the close connection of public and private interests with the obvious predominance of the public significance of their legal norms.