Self-Ownership, Property Rights, and the Human Body: A Legal and Philosophical Analysis

How ought the law to deal with novel challenges regarding the use and control of human biomaterials? As it stands the law is ill-equipped to deal with these. Quigley argues that advancing biotechnology means that the law must confront and move boundaries which it has constructed; in particular, those which delineate property from non-property in relation to biomaterials. Drawing together often disparate strands of property discourse, she offers a philosophical and legal re-analysis of the law in relation to property in the body and biomaterials. She advances a new defence, underpinned by self-ownership, of the position that persons ought to be seen as the prima facie holders of property rights in their separated biomaterials. This book will appeal to those interested in medical and property law, philosophy, bioethics, and health policy amongst others.

• Includes a robust discussion of self-ownership and provides a new perspective to the legal literature
• Brings together legal and philosophical scholarship in the area and enriches the discourse by taking a wider and more integrated view
• Discusses in-depth the legislative and common law background by covering a number of jurisdictions: England and Wales, Scotland, US, Canada and Australia