Commodification of Human Tissue

Heather Widdows, Herjeet Marway, Sarah-Louise Johnson

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Commodification is a broad and crosscutting issue that spans debates in ethics (from prostitution to global market practices) and bioethics (from the sale of body parts to genetic enhancement). There has been disagreement, however, over what constitutes commodification, whether it is happening, and whether it is of ethical import. This chapter focuses on one area of the discussion in bioethics – the commodification of human tissue – and addresses these questions – about the characteristics of commodification, its pervasiveness, and ethical significance – in order to clarify and map the commodificatory debate.
The chapter does this in three parts. First, it defines commodification as the shift from “persons” to “things” and from “relationships” to services for “contract.” Second, using examples of kidney and gamete sale and commercial surrogacy, it argues that commodification is rife in bioethics. Third, it contends that commodification is an ethical problem for three key reasons: First, because it leads to exploitation; second, because some things should not be for sale; and third, because it damages social goods. The chapter concludes that commodification and commodificatory practices should be resisted.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationHandbook of Global Bioethics
EditorsB. Gordijin, Henk A.M.J. ten Have
Place of PublicationNetherlands
PublisherSpringer
Pages581-598
Number of pages18
ISBN (Electronic)978-94-007-2512-6
ISBN (Print)978-94-007-2511-9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014

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