Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age

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Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age

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tác giả :
Elizabeth M. Whelan

From :
Insight on the News( Vol. 17, Issue trăng tròn )

quảng cáo trên internet :
News World Communications, Inc .

Document Type :
Book nhận xét

Length :
709 words

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Biomedical Prostitution ?As technology finds hot nhất uses for tissue, blood, bone & DNA, ethicists struggle with the commercialization of the human body, the source for an increasing range of clinical products .The chemicals of a human body were estimated béo be worth 89 cents. Now, according phệ the authors of a provocative ( và in some ways, shocking ) hot nhất book, body parts, both in people và corpses, may be worth millions .The commercialization of the human body, in pursuit of mới ra pharmaceuticals, organ transplants & genetic research on individuals alive và chết, raises mind-boggling ethical và moral issues, write Lori Andrews và Dorothy Nelkin in Body Bazaar : The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age ( Crown, USD 24, 245 pp ). The trend has ethicists confronting the most basic questions : Do individuals have ” rights ” béo their blood & tissues ? Should body parts be bought & sold ? Whose body is it, anyway ?The authors have produced a highly readable, extraordinarily researched book ( there are nearly 60 pages of references ), not surprising given their qualifications : Andrews is director of the Institute for Science, Law & Technology at the Illinois Institute of Technology và a distinguished professor of law at Chicago’s Kent College of Law ; Nelkin holds a university professorship at New York University và is a thành viên of the National Academy of Sciences .In recent years, biotechnology has transformed human body tissues into marketable research materials và clinical products. Institutions that have access béo such tissues have a ready commercial resource. In 1995, for example, the National Institute of Mental Health obtained interviews, clinical dữ liệu &, most important, DNA samples from hundreds of families who had suffered with Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia or manic depression. The government agency sold access Khủng these resources Khủng Merck, Pfizer và other pharmaceutical houses for their use in developing diagnostics & therapeutic products for mental disorders .” Whole businesses are developing around the body business, ” the authors write. ” Companies have sprung up, for example, bự make commercial products out of corpses ‘ bones. Some grind up the bones into powder that, when sprinkled on broken live bones, will help them mend. ”

From the beginning, Andrews và Nelkin make it clear that body parts from the living và the chết are gold mines for pharmaceutical development. ” Pieces of people are used in a variety of ways, ” the authors tell us, noting that infant foreskin removed in circumcisions is used béo create hot nhất tissue for artificial hình mẫu ; thigh muscle và umbilical cords are purchased from hospitals và used in the development of blood products. Thes e parts might be considered ” leftovers ” … disposables. But with the advent of genetic decoding và biotechnology, body-part issues become much more complex .The authors could have ( và probably should have ) limited the focus of their book Khủng biomedical research. But the book detours into macabre, but not necessarily related, areas of ethics và commerce. Who owns the rights béo a corpse ? What ethical considerations need lớn be evaluated, for example, when a researcher seeks bự vì genetic testing on long-deceased individuals such as George Washington ?Further, what are the ethical considerations associated with the truly numbing và morbid practice of using human body parts as a means of ” expression ” ? For example, we learn that an artist in Germany routinely purchases corpses, plasticizes the body parts & reassembles them, leaving flaps of hình mẫu open phệ display the anatomy. Does this practice debase the sanctity of the human body ? Another artist uses human blood bự paint on canvas. And yet another one acquired two human fetuses & molded them onto a ceramic skull as ” earrings. ” Most readers will be stunned và revolted bự learn that you can go lớn a Website called Skulls Unlimited và find advertisements for human skulls ranging in price from USD 279 lớn USD 599, depending on the number of teeth & the condition .Body Bazaar is a book that, despite its occasional diversions, introduces us lớn the future of medical research & the problems of privacy và mạng xã hội control that arise with the demand for human body parts in medical commerce. As you read it, it is unavoidable once or twice béo ask yourself ” is this real — or is this science fiction ? “Elizabeth M. Whelan is president of the American Council on Science & Health .

Copyright :
COPYRIGHT 2001 News World Communications, Inc .

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Gale Document Number:
GALE|A75122080