THE CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCIPLE OF HUMAN DIGNITY AND SPECIAL LEGAL STATUS OF THE HUMAN EMBRYO

This article examines the nature of the constitutional principle of human dignity in the modern era and its manifestation in the legal status of the embryo. Advances  in biotechnology and modern scientific progress reveal controversial issues regarding human nature, rights and dignity, including human nature at the earliest stages of development. Particular attention is given to the biological and medical characteristics of the development of the human embryo, embryonic cells and the formation of the systems of the future human body, in conjunction with ethical, philosophical and legal approaches to determining the beginning of legal protection for the future human body. Emphasis is placed on the broad legal debate regarding the granting of the embryo the status of a legal subject and its legal capacity. The paper explores various approaches and provides a critical analysis of the impossibility of equating the human embryo with an object of law or a set of human cells due to its special property – the ability, under certain conditions, to develop into a human person. It is precisely this issue, from the author’s perspective, that entails enhanced legal protection of the life and dignity of the unborn child. The requirement for dignified treatment of the embryo becomes the leitmotif of its enhanced legal protectio