A Rights-Based Model of Governance: The Case of Human Enhancement and the Role of Ethics in Europe

In Europe, the current model of governance is characterized by the centrality of ethics, which led (at national and supranational levels) to both the institutionalization of ethics (the bureaucratic expression of ethics) and to the ‘ethicization of techno-science’ (the tendency to frame the governance of emerging technologies in ethical terms). This model is unique in the world and, due to the overlapping of the above-mentioned phenomena, has generated a process of blurring of the boundary between ethics and law, which weakens the action of the regulatory and ethical tools of governance, especially with regard to human rights. The analysis of the case of human enhancement, with particular regard to stem cell research, shows instead how a clearer distinction of the role and functions of ethics and law, and the development of mechanisms of self-coordination can strengthen the current model of governance as a rights-oriented one