Criminal Regulations Of Gene Editing Technology In Risk Society

As an emerging technology,gene-editing technology has made a breakthrough in promoting the development of modern science and technology.However,gene-editing technology has great social risks as it is still being explored and perfected.Therefore,it also poses significant challenges to traditional ethics and various legal relations.In order to deal with the infringement of legal interest brought by the development of geneediting technology in the risk society and to protect the healthy and sustainable development of human society,Amendment(XI)to the Criminal Law added provisions on the crime of illegally implanting gene-editing embryos in 2020.Nevertheless,there are still disputes regarding the criminal regulation of gene-editing technology.Firstly,from the case of He Jiankui gene-edited baby,the risks and controversies of gene-editing technology in a risk society are discussed.The risks of gene-editing technology include the technical safety risk and the social ethics risk that impinges on social equality and order.The dual risks of gene-editing technology have challenged the order of human society,triggered disputes of technology and ethics,and brought unpredictable impacts on the development of human society.Secondly,combining with the viewpoints of "don’t say" and "need to say" about Criminal law intervention,it is believed that the improper use of gene-editing technology is of legal benefit infringement,and other laws cannot effectively prevent the abuse of gene-editing technology.Therefore,criminal law must be used to prevent the legal benefit infringement caused by the improper use of gene-editing technology.By analyzing the problems of criminal regulation before the promulgation of Amendment(XI)to the Criminal Law and the content of criminal regulation after the promulgation,it is found that there are still some problems in criminal law of China,such as the unclear content of criminal regulation on gene-editing technology,the imperfect criminal regulation system and the unclear legislative model.Thirdly,the article investigates legislation principles,legislative contents and legislative model of Germany,Japan,the United States,Britain,Spain and other countries.It is concluded that in these countries,the content of the legislation of geneediting technology crime is relatively perfect,and the regulation system of gene-editing technology crime has been constructed,and different legislative modes have been established.Finally,combining with the above problems and foreign experience for reference,this article puts forward some suggestions to perfect gene-editing techniques in criminal law of China: It makes clear that medical institutions and other relevant units can be eligible subjects for the crime of gene-editing technology,and any act of carrying out or helping to carry out gene-editing technology for reproduction or human creation is a criminal act.In terms of criminal regulation system,except the addition of gene technology crimes,it is proposed to classify the smuggling behavior involving geneediting embryos and the behavior of revealing gene privacy to be regulated by criminal law.In terms of improving the legislative mode,a legislative mode combining the penal code and the separate criminal law is proposed to regulate gene-editing technology and other biological technologies uniformly,to ensure the healthy development of gene technology while improving the criminal regulation of gene-editing technology.