Crime Of Illegally Implanting Gene Editing And Cloning Embryos And Its Improvement

Article 39 of the Eleventh Amendment to the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China added "the crime of illegally implanting gene editing and cloning embryos".The promulgation of this charge makes up for the vacancy in the field of gene technology in our criminal law.The rapid development of gene technology represented by CRISPR/Cas9 and cloning technology has brought unprecedented biological and ethical risks to human beings.Under this legislative background,the crime of illegal implanting gene editing and cloning embryo arises at the historic moment.Compared with traditional criminal law,this crime has the characteristics of preventive criminal law,which has advanced the time of criminal law intervention and expanded the boundary of criminal law punishment.However,in terms of the potential harm of gene editing and cloning of embryos to human society,the establishment of the new crime does not violate the principle of modesty of criminal law.The protection interest of illegal gene editing and cloning embryo crime is the safety of human gene editing and cloning technology.The crime of illegally implanting gene editing and cloning embryos is defined as "implanting",and "serious" is taken as a necessary condition for constituting a crime.The natural person who has the ability of criminal responsibility is the main part of the crime.In comparison with the criminal legislation related to the field of genes outside the country,the punishment for the crime of illegal implantation of gene editing and cloning of embryos is relatively light,and the multiple constituent elements of this crime are obviously reflected in the balance between preventive criminal legislation and the modesty principle of criminal law.The crime of illegal implanting gene editing and cloning embryo has just come into being,and it still needs to be perfected on the legislative level.In order to standardize the development of genetic science and technology,ensure that the people enjoy the progress of genetic science and technology and avoid the infringement of criminal acts,in addition to improving the criminal law itself,we should establish an effective system composed of scientific evaluation,ethical review,quality supervision and legal responsibility.Ensuring the healthy and orderly development of gene technology and standardizing the order of scientific research is the meaning of the construction of socialist rule of law in the new era.