An argument against treating our bodies as commodities No one wants to
be treated like an object, regarded as an item of property, or put up
for sale. Yet many people frame personal autonomy in terms of
self-ownership, representing themselves as property owners with the
right to do as they wish with their bodies. Others do not use the
language of property, but are similarly insistent on the rights of
free individuals to decide for themselves whether to engage in
commercial transactions for sex, reproduction, or organ sales. Drawing
on analyses of rape, surrogacy, and markets in human organs, Our
Bodies, Whose Property? challenges notions of freedom based on
ownership of our bodies and argues against the normalization of
markets in bodily services and parts. Anne Phillips explores the risks
associated with metaphors of property and the reasons why the
commodification of the body remains problematic. What, she asks, is
wrong with thinking of oneself as the owner of one's body? What is
wrong with making our bodies available for rent or sale? What, if
anything, is the difference between markets in sex, reproduction, or
human body parts, and the other markets we commonly applaud? Phillips
contends that body markets occupy the outer edges of a continuum that
is, in some way, a feature of all labor markets. But she also
emphasizes that we all have bodies, and considers the implications of
this otherwise banal fact for equality. Bodies remind us of shared
vulnerability, alerting us to the common experience of living as
embodied beings in the same world. Examining the complex issue of body
exceptionalism, Our Bodies, Whose Property? demonstrates that treating
the body as property makes human equality harder to comprehend.
Les mer
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781400846368
Publisert
2013
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter