In the article, the author discusses ethical aspects of editing genome of embryos and newborns with the emphasis on the legal uncertainty of the embryo status and the legislative features of granting the “human” status to the fetus in the Russian Federation. The potential risks of ensuring the rights of patients and their legal representatives to information, as well as the right to “not know” are assessed. The author comes to the conclusion about the need to improve legislation in terms of strengthening state control (supervision) over research related to genome editing of both the embryo and the newborn.