Legal policy of genetically modified organisms and Consumer Protection

This Bachelor thesis is focused on genetic engineering and its results. The aim is to familiarize the reader with the issue of biotechnology and its products, which are genetically modified organisms. The introduction of the work explains the basic concepts and describes the history of the biotechnology and genetic modifications in general. In this part are also listed examples of genetic modifications including information about testing and practical application in the Czech Republic. This scientific branch is in the very beginning and there are still ongoing series of programs and research in order to create new plants and animals. The second chapter briefly summarizes the positive and negative aspects of the use of genetic modification. The third chapter is focused on the legal regulation of this issue. The first subsection summarizes the Czech legislation, the second one summarizes European legislative shared by member states of the EU. Fundamental international organisations which are dealing with genetic engineering are not omitted in following subsection. Some international agreements are also mentioned. The last, it means fourth, chapter focuses on the consumers, not only as an object of the protection by government and international organisations, but also in terms of their attitude to genetically modified organisms used in the production process of food intended for the market. Subsections describe the issues of labelling GM-products and lack of awareness of people, they mention movements and non-profit organisations fighting against using GMOs in the products intended for human consumption and their use in general. This issue is connected with many risks including possible side-effects on human health. This section also describes general attitude of the consumers themselves to GM-products.