The Limits of Legal Regulation of Human Somatic Rights: On the Formulation of the Problem (Public Law Analysis)

This article is dedicated to the public-legal analysis of the boundaries of legal regulation of human somatic rights. The authors substantiate the position that not every human capability related, in one way or another, to the disposition of one's own body falls under the category of somatic rights. Some of these capabilities, according to the legislation of the Russian Federation, are classified as offenses, for instance, engaging in prostitution or euthanasia. Human somatic rights represent the protected and state-supported opportunities of a person to dispose of their body, life, and health, including opportunities related to the reproduction of new human generations. However, not all of these opportunities are detailed in legal norms. The state intervenes in the process of realization of these capabilities by legal regulation only when it: affects the rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests of third parties (for example, part of reproductive rights, the right to donate); violates moral and ethical norms or legal norms (in particular, engaging in prostitution); or when third parties are involved in this process (for example, euthanasia). A number of scientific research methods were employed in the article, including: formal-logical; comparative-legal; historical-legal; statistical; sociological; and the method of analyzing specific legal situations. The authors have identified some issues related to determining the boundaries of legal regulation of human somatic rights in the Russian Federation, in particular: the legislation does not establish a definition of the term "somatic rights"; several somatic rights recognized by foreign legislation are not acknowledged as such in Russia (or are even classified as offenses and crimes); there are no unified regulatory legal acts dedicated to the legal regulation of either somatic human rights as a whole or major groups of these rights (for example, reproductive rights); a uniform classification of somatic human rights has not been developed in Russian legal doctrine; the content of these rights has not been defined; and there is no developed definition of the concept and content of the boundaries of legal regulation of somatic human rights.