Abstract: The first IVF baby was born in the 1970s. Less than twenty years later, cloning and GM food were popular talking-points, and information and communication technologies had transformed everyday life. In 2000, the first map of the human genome was sequenced. More recently there has been much discussion of the economic and social benefits of nanotechnology. This book contributes to increasing calls for regulation — or better regulation — of these and other new technologies. Drawing on an international team of legal scholars, it reviews and develops the role of human rights in the regulation of new technologies. Three controversies at the intersection between human rights and new technologies are given particular attention. First, are human rights contributing to a brave new world of choice, where human dignity is fundamentally compromised? Second, are new technologies a threat to human rights? Finally, can human rights contribute to better regulation of these technologies?

Keywords: human rights, new technologies, human dignity, choice, risk, regulation, bioethics, biotechnologies, assisted reproductive technologies, genetic technologies