Biopower as Creator of Ethical and Legal Problems: Case of the Legal Status of a Human Embryo

Abstract

The aim of this article is to address the current risk of the increasingly progressive development of biomedicine, which, due to the passivity of the legislator, transforms itself into the form of biopower, which is a new form of regulation of society. However, this type of power is represented by private clinics or companies, which focus their attention primarily on the rapid scientific development and economic prosperity. The result is that, on the one hand, modern procedures in the field of reproductive medicine and prenatal care are presented as rescuing individuals or societies from the problem of low birth rates, but, on the other hand, they lead to the overproduction of human embryos, which are then frozen as biological material that can be used, donated or even destroyed. Consequently, we can assert that the right to life is no longer respected as a basic or sacred value, but as an obstacle to scientific development, whose borders are not restricted even by the protection of life itself and the need of preserving its naturalness.