The right to make decisions concerning one’s own body: problems of justification and balancing with competing interests
Students Name: Hutsaliuk Valeriia Vitaliivna
Qualification Level: master (ESP)
Speciality: International Information
Institute: Institute of Applied Mathematics and Fundamental Sciences
Mode of Study: full
Academic Year: 2019-2020 н.р.
Language of Defence: ukrainian
Abstract: Modern globalization processes lead to the expansion of the limits of individual freedom and increase in the extent of the rights that belong to the individual. Against the background of the rapid development of artificial intelligence and biotechnologies, comprehensive automation and robotization of technological processes, interest in the problem of human body manipulation has become particularly important. Eventually, this led to the emergence of the fourth generation of human rights, which includes somatic human rights. They contain the ability to manipulate own body (cloning own body, performing euthanasia, artificial insemination and abortion procedures, changing the sexual identity gender reassignment, use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, etc.). Some of these legal opportunities are provided by a number of national legislative acts. However, at the international level the concept of somatic rights has not yet been recognized. The lack of universality in defining the content of the right to make decisions concerning one`s own body leads to legal uncertainty. Thus, the rights to make decisions concerning one`s own body as an independent group of rights, the mechanism of their realization, as well as the problems of justification of this right, require more detailed theoretical and legal research. In this master’s qualification work, one of the most urgent problems of the present is highlighted - the problem of justification of the right to make decisions concerning one`s own body and balancing it with competing interests. Chapter I deals with the philosophical and legal aspects of the emer-gence of the right to make decisions concerning one`s own body: philosophical and legal origins of the concept of the right to make decisions concerning one`s own body are identified and analyzed; current trends in the development of the right to make decisions concerning one`s own body are outlined. Chapter II examines the problem of justification of the right to make decisions concerning one`s own body at four levels of Causal layered analysis (CLA): "Litany", "System", "Worldview", "Myth-metaphor". As a result, in this charter, the picture of the superficial and underlying factors that affect the recognition of the right to make decisions concerning one`s own body, and the interlinkages among them are provided. In Chapter III, competing interests (protection of public morals, protection of mental health, genetic safety, fathers’ rights in abortion decisions) are established and balanced with the hypothetical human right to make decisions concerning one`s own body in order to determine the recommendations and prospects for recognition of this right. Key words: right to make decisions concerning one`s own body, somatic human rights, causal layered analysis, balancing of competing legal interests, justification of human rights, idea of self-ownership.