Fragmentation of law and gene therapy in human embryos: a civil problem of biolaw

Abstract

There are growing reports about the editing of the DNA of human embryos spreading on Earth. In parallel, in mid-2020, the National Technical Commission on Biosafety authorized gene therapy in Brazil. The overlapping of the referred situations suggests that mentioned technology could be used in the country, denying the Law 11.105/05 (article 6). Here is the hypothesis that informs this paper. Its main objective is to prove – revisiting the legal situation of the embryo and analyzing the normative protection conferred to it in Brazil – the impossibility of editing human embryos that will be gestated. The literature review guided the data collection. The jus-sociological imagination was used to format the paper. The anticipated hypothesis was confirmed in the end.