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SYMBOLS OF HUMAN DIGNITY AND IDENTITY PROTECTION: RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY FACING THE CHALLENGE OF THE BIOTECHNOLOGY REVOLUTION IN MEDICINE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2022. Issue 2 (32). P. 88-111

The article discusses the development of bioethics in Russia. Bioethics is viewed as a form of expert knowledge designed to protect human dignity and identity in the field of health care and biomedicine. The authors show that the emergence of bioethics was connected with the transformation of the Soviet healthcare system, which was replaced by a system based on the principles of market relations. The authors note that the situation in Russia is typologically similar to the situation in the United States, which emerged on the wave of neo-liberal economic reforms that led to the rapid development of biomedicine science and biotechnology. Like in the U.S., in Russia, the development of bioethics also took place in response to the biotechnology revolution in medicine, but its advance was interrupted by the dramatic collapse of the Soviet state. The emergence of the public-private healthcare system and the rapid expansion of biomedical technologies required an intellectual and moral response from a diverse group of experts analyzing problems associated with it. The two most active groups of the expert community could articulate this answer – philosophers associated with the system of academic institutions and theologians participating in the development of the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church. The article offers a general picture of the development of bioethics in Russia, taking into consideration the specific contributions of these two groups. The focus is on two historical stages in the development of bioethics: its emergence, associated with the transformation of the healthcare system, and the contemporary state, characterized by the rapid spread of biomedical technologies. The authors conclude that philosophers see their mission as to sound the alarm about the “pace” of the spread of biotechnology and the speed of change in human nature that they believe is possible. Theologians, on the other hand, see their mission as to signal the dangerous “temptations” of progress that invite humans to take the place of God and become creators of their own nature by replacing themselves with something completely different.

Keywords: biotechnology revolution in medicine, biomedicine, bioethics, history, Russia, philosophy, Orthodox theology