Medical Ethics, Biology - Biotechnology, Philosophy of Science - General & Miscellaneous, Philosophical & Religious Aspects of Technology, Feminism & Feminist Theory, Biotechnology & Bioengineering

Property in the Body

Name: Property in the Body
Author: Donna Dickenson
ISBN: 9780521687324

by Donna Dickenson

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Overview

New developments in biotechnology radically alter our relationship with our bodies. Body tissues can now be used for commercial purposes, while external objects, such as pacemakers, can become part of the body. Property in the Body: Feminist Perspectives transcends the everyday responses to such developments, suggesting that what we most fear is the feminisation of the body. We fear our bodies are becoming objects of property, turning us into things rather than persons. This book evaluates how well-grounded this fear is, and suggests innovative models of regulating what has been called 'the new Gold Rush' in human tissue. This is an up-to-date and wide-ranging synthesis of market developments in body tissue, bringing together bioethics, feminist theory and lessons from countries that have resisted commercialisation of the body, in a theoretically sophisticated and practically significant approach.

Synopsis

This is an up-to-date and wide-ranging synthesis of market developments in body tissue.

About the Author, Donna Dickenson

Donna Dickenson is Professor of Medical Ethics and Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

"It is rare to find a text that offers a specifically feminist approach to bioethical problems that are not commonly taken as gendered...this book is to be recommended for an illuminating attempt at philosophical and legal rigor applied to cutting edge ethical issues."
Jackie L. Scully, Metapsychology Online

Dickenson is essential reading, making one aware that ensuring donors’ informed consent to the procedures they undergo hardly touches the complexity of the issues involved. Instead, we have to ask whether donors have a rightful interest in how the bodily tissues they donated are later used in research programs and also consider society’s legitimate interest in who benefits from the sale of the biotechnological products that may result." - SIGNS