Dina Aziz
Editor '18
There is an ongoing controversy as to whether people should have the right to own their bodies and be able to do whatever they want with their parts. One cannot even choose who his or her organs get donated to; instead, the organs go to strangers at the top of the waiting list. People want to sell their organs and others are desperate to buy them; however, markets for selling organs are illegal and priceless.
The Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust trial of 2009 debates whether it is logical that we should own our bodies. The law refused to say that anyone owns their own body and their rights to selling organs, prostitution, selling yourself into slavery, or destroying it.
Men deposited semen samples with a clinic before undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, having been told that the therapy would probably make them infertile. The hospital was negligent with the samples and they got damaged; therefore, the men cannot have children. They could not bring a claim for personal injury since the bodily fluids were no longer part of their body. However, the court decided the semen were personal property since the men had control on what do with it. It is difficult for courts draw the line for when a body is personal property or not. Oxford University questions, “Is your kidney your property if you’re donating it to a friend, and the doctors damage it and you suffer mental distress because your friend can’t have a transplant?”
People's rights to control not only access to their bodies by someone else but also what happens to their body and their personal information should be protected. A person’s body should be considered personal property and one should be able to decide what he or she does with it.
Editor '18
There is an ongoing controversy as to whether people should have the right to own their bodies and be able to do whatever they want with their parts. One cannot even choose who his or her organs get donated to; instead, the organs go to strangers at the top of the waiting list. People want to sell their organs and others are desperate to buy them; however, markets for selling organs are illegal and priceless.
The Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust trial of 2009 debates whether it is logical that we should own our bodies. The law refused to say that anyone owns their own body and their rights to selling organs, prostitution, selling yourself into slavery, or destroying it.
Men deposited semen samples with a clinic before undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, having been told that the therapy would probably make them infertile. The hospital was negligent with the samples and they got damaged; therefore, the men cannot have children. They could not bring a claim for personal injury since the bodily fluids were no longer part of their body. However, the court decided the semen were personal property since the men had control on what do with it. It is difficult for courts draw the line for when a body is personal property or not. Oxford University questions, “Is your kidney your property if you’re donating it to a friend, and the doctors damage it and you suffer mental distress because your friend can’t have a transplant?”
People's rights to control not only access to their bodies by someone else but also what happens to their body and their personal information should be protected. A person’s body should be considered personal property and one should be able to decide what he or she does with it.