Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights: The First Legal and Ethical Framework at the Global Level
![handle is hein.journals/colhr30 and id is 555 raw text is: UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON THE
HUMAN GENOME AND HUMAN RIGHTS:
THE FIRST LEGAL AND ETHICAL
FRAMEWORK AT THE GLOBAL LEVEL
by Noalle Lenoir*
Biotechnology is transforming many aspects of our private and
social lives, including reproduction, medicine, nutrition and agriculture,
anti-pollution techniques, and energy production. Genetics, which allows
an increasing number of predictive tests, could also change workplace
relations, particularly with regard to hiring practices. It could alter the
status of individuals and families under welfare systems such as insurance
or social security. Judges in some countries currently use genetic printing
to assist in conclusively determining identities, for example in criminal
cases or in cases involving paternity issues. All these changes have given
rise to new issues within the branch of ethical philosophy known as
bioethics. Bioethics first gave rise to national legislation in a few
industrialized countries, but inconsistency between these countries and
those without relevant legislation encourages the transfer of the practices
in question elsewhere, to places where no safeguards have been
established. As a result, bioethics is now generating international rules.
* Diplome, Institute of Political Studies, Paris (1969); Maitrise, University of Paris
11, Faculty of Law (1971); DEA, Public Law and Political Science, University of Paris I
(1972). Noelle Lenoir has been a Justice of the Constitutional Court of France since
February 1992, when she became the first woman ever appointed to the Constitutional Court.
She has also been Chair of the European Commission's European Group on Ethics in
Science and New Technology, and Special Counsellor to the General Director of UNESCO
for the Ethics of Science and New Technologies. She recently served as Special Adviser to
the Prime Minister of France for the Law Relating to Bioethics and the Life Sciences (1990-
1991), Chair of the European Commission's Group of Advisers on the Ethical Implications
of Biotechnology (1994-1997), and Chair of the UNESCO International Bioethics
Committee (1993-1998). She has published extensively on administrative law and bioethics,
most recently Les Normes Internationales de ]a Bio~thique [International Bioethical Norms]
(1998).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/colhr30&div=34&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights: The First Legal and Ethical Framework at the Global Level
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