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Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science

ISSN Online: 2576-0548 ISSN Print: 2576-0556 CODEN: JHASAY
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ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2025.06.022

Genetic Rights and Their Jurisprudential Foundations: A Study of China’s First Genetic Discrimination Case and the “Gene-edited Babies” Incident

Xi Yang

Law School, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, Sichuan, China.

*Corresponding author: Xi Yang

Published: July 08, 2025

Abstract

Genetic rights refer to the rights pertaining to genes inherent to natural persons, whose legal nature as public rights, private rights, or a bundle of rights remains debated in academic circles. This paper examines the judicial conflicts and remedial approaches regarding related interests in China’s first genetic discrimination case and the gene-edited babies incident, thereby demonstrating the practical necessity and interest-based demands for recognizing genetic rights as an emerging right. From the perspectives of human dignity and societal needs, it further analyzes the jurisprudential foundation of genetic rights, advocating for transcending empirical constraints to anchor their value within the framework of human rights. Finally, in the light of existing extraterritorial experience, the normative focus of genetic rights is on the adequate protection of the subject’s genetic rights. Therefore, the paper systematically discusses China’s regulatory framework for genetic rights under both public and private law, with a focus on their protection within the context of the Civil Code.

Keyword

Genetic discrimination; gene editing; embryonic interests; genetic rights; human dignity

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Copyright

© 2025 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

How to cite this paper

Genetic Rights and Their Jurisprudential Foundations: A Study of China’s First Genetic Discrimination Case and the “Gene-edited Babies” Incident

How to cite this paper: Xi Yang. (2025) Genetic Rights and Their Jurisprudential Foundations: A Study of China’s First Genetic Discrimination Case and the “Gene-edited Babies” Incident. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science9(6), 1179-1184.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2025.06.022