Human Rights Protection in Genome Editing

Introducing the human rights perspective into the multi-dimensional governance of human genome editing activities would help define boundaries for the behaviors of stakeholders such as the state, researchers, ethics committee members, and the public, and clarify specific practices of these subjects or entities to meet the requirements of human rights obligations. Based on the human dignity principle, humans must never be used as a means to an end in scientific research. The right to physical and mental health requires the implementation of the principles of informed consent, the primacy of life, and risk control in genome editing, as well as the proper treatment of embryos. The right to privacy corresponds to the confidentiality obligations and non-intervention obligations of relevant parties, and the protection of sensitive personal information points to the special compliance requirements regarding information processing. Differential treatment of genome-edited humans requires objective and reasonable justification, and should also meet the requirements of the proportionality principle.