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Daele, Wolfgang van den --- "Legal Framework and Political Strategy in Dealing with the Risks of New Technology: The Two Faces of the Precautionary Principle" [2007] ELECD 117; in Somsen, Han (ed), "The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: The Regulatory Challenge of Biotechnology

Editor(s): Somsen, Han

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845424893

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Legal Framework and Political Strategy in Dealing with the Risks of New Technology: The Two Faces of the Precautionary Principle

Author(s): Daele, Wolfgang van den

Number of pages: 21

Extract:

4. An abstract approach to the
regulation of human genetics:
law, morality and social policy
Justine Burley

1 INTRODUCTION

For all the talk about what is `ethical and moral' in policy deliberations over
applications of human genetics, many law-makers have proved themselves
remarkably adept at eschewing the sort of abstract reasoning that would
lend point to either term. Typically, they are deployed merely to signal that
a given policy references a certain domain of human conduct or belief, not
to add substance to a discussion or a clause in a document. The net result of
this reluctance to engage with the issues presented by advances in genetics
at a more critical level of our moral thinking, is that regulation is piecemeal,
short-sighted, so effete in some cases that it does not serve the intended
purpose, and in others so defective (morally or logistically) that it has actual
or foreseeable adverse consequences for both individuals and society.
These are strong claims, to be sure. One of the aims of this chapter is to
substantiate them. The case studies I shall concentrate on to that end, are
genetic testing and insurance, and therapeutic cloning. Discussion of each
case study will be carried out in dedicated sections, where I shall provide
analysis of current debate, and of the benefits and pitfalls of actual legis-
lation/regulation. I then go on to demonstrate further the ways in which
existing measures are defective by recourse to a thought experiment involv-
ing a hypothetical ...