Fredrik Svenaeus

The Body as Gift, Resource, and Commodity : Exchanging Organs,Tissues, and Cells in the 21st Century Fredrik Svenaeus

Departing from three metaphors - the body as gift, resource, and commodity - the book explores the contemporary exchange of organs, tissues, and cells. Although the gift is the sanctioned metaphor for donating parts of the body, the underlying perspective from the side of states, authorities, and the medical establishment often seems to be that the body shall be understood as a resource. But medicine, as some of the contributors to this book show, is not sealed off from the market economy. Increasingly, therefore, body parts become commodities on legal as well as illegal markets.