Kontakt 2007, 9(1):102-111 | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2007.013

Problem of the modification of the human nature in context of genetic engineeringHealth and Social Sciences

Jekatěrina Ignatěva Gnatik

Ruská univerzita přátelství národů v Moskvě, katedra ontologie a teorie poznání

Coming changes in the way of the human existence bring qualitative modifications of the system of the human consciousness. There are reasons for an assumption that at the contemporary stage of the development of natural sciences, an era will come, in which man can humble himself. Thus, the object of the purposeful transformation will be not the external nature but the nature of man, i. e. the natural-biological basis of the human life activity. The consequence of this will be a new dimension of the discipline referred to as genetic engineering. Genetic engineering of man principally alters the basic relationship between the subject and object, forming the basic arrangement and values of the consciousness, by creating tools making possible more considerable intervention into the nature of man and rule of this nature. Targets of genetic engineering are beneficial. These are attempts to provide conditions for increasing the quality of the health protection, to prolong the active life, to set man free of severe diseases including neurodegenerative disorders, and even to enhance the intellectual level. Advances of biology and medicine alter the understanding of the world, self-consciousness and moral self-confidence. The goal of modern medicine is not only to help the patient, but also to search for possibilities of the control of the processes of pathology, conception and dying. Thus, the development of biotechnological intervention presents complex and ambiguous ethical problems similar to those formerly originating in association with other technologies. The concept of anthropogenetics is focused on a further elaboration and concrete expression of the general theory of biology and on acquiring knowledge, which is of importance for the use in practice. A considerable aspect of the effect of the practice on the field of the scientific-theoretical knowledge associated with the development of genetic engineering is the requirement for solving the principal contradiction between substantiated results of the human life activity and the human life itself - the human subjectivity.

Keywords: Biotechnological engineering; self-consciousness; self-identification; anthropogenetics

Received: December 11, 2006; Accepted: April 3, 2007; Published: June 15, 2007  Show citation