Bodies for Sale: Ethics and Exploitation in the Human Body Trade

The commercial exploitation of the human body is nothing new. Since the 1980s however, concerns have been voiced about the ways in which new biomedical technologies allow us to use the human body for profit. But is this "commodification" of the human body wrong, or do people have a moral right to sell parts of their bodies? Bodies for Saleexplores the philosophical and practical implications of practices such as surrogacy and organ harvesting. Stephen Wilkinson asks what is it that makes some commercial uses of the body controversial, whether such arguments stand up, and whether legislation outlawing such practices is really desirable.

Stephen Wilkinson is Senior Lecturer in ethics and philosophy at Keele University. He has published a number of papers on applied ethics and philosophy, one of which won the 1999 Philosophical Quarterly International Essay Prize.