Gene Information Protection within the Personal Information Law System
GUO Shaofei
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History+
Published
2023-05-25
Issue Date
2023-06-12
Abstract
The Civil Code and the Personal Information Protection Law constitute the basic legal system for personal information protection in China. However, highly sensitive and specific genetic information is of great importance to human dignity and urgently needs special institutional protection. Yet the current laws, which are abstract and generalized, lack pertinence and cannot fully meet the institutional needs of the protection of personal genetic information rights and interests and social practice. What is well known is that specialized legislation on genetic information is quite common in the practice of global rule of law. The supply of special systems can effectively promote the development of the genetic technology industry and the realization of China's national strategy for biotechnology. Therefore, special legislation must be fashioned to build a three-tier institutional system of the Civil Code, the Personal Information Protection Law, and the Genetic Information Law. In special legislation, the self-determination and security of genetic information privacy are prioritized, and mobile utilization is considered; genetic rights and interests of natural person are the foundation, and multiple interests are balanced; law and ethics govern together, and tolerance and responsibility are integrated. Furthermore, special legislation should be rooted in the types of genetic information, namely independently identifiable information, aggregated identifiable information, and non-identifiable (anonymous) information. Then the process-ability should be graded among strictly limited, partially limited, and highly free types. In terms of the core rules for personal information protection, it is necessary to first clarify the specific purpose, sufficient necessity, and strict protective measures, and then carry out the design of differentiated systems for informed consent, such as the consent rule for natural person with no full capacity, the method of informed consent, the unconditional withdrawal of consent, and the grounds for exemption of consent based on the types of genetic information.
GUO Shaofei.
Gene Information Protection within the Personal Information Law System. Jinan Journal. 2023, 45(5): 59-72 https://doi.org/10.11778/j.jnxb.20220906