Assignment: Body Ethics (5/1)

BODY ETHICS
(due 5/1)

“If people think that the parts are treated like commodities, bought and sold, they may be much less willing to give. Bodies aren't the same as Coca-Cola cans.”

Commenting on the discovery of five human heads in a leaking package by a parcel carrier company during transit from Philadelphia to Denver. (Arthur Leopold)

The body has long been the object of cultural and therefore “technological” attention and elaboration. What has changed most recently is the magnitude of technological modifications of the body and the degree to which the body has become another commodity in the world of global capitalism. Our bodies are to some extent controlled by the modern state. It tells us what we can eat, how to behave, how we are born and what chemicals we can and can not be exposed to. It tells us even when we are “dead” or “alive”.
Considering the vulnerability of the body and the increasing power of the “state” consider what lessons anthropology might offer us as we face the ethical impact of powerful technologies. Use your readings for support. You may consider some or all of the following:

1.     When does life begin?

2.     When does life end?

3.     Are body parts commodities, therapies or neither?

4.     To what extent can labor be sold? Or bodies be used by others?

5.     Do we own our cells? DNA?

6.     Is enhancement/augmentation immoral (genetic, mechanical or chemical)?

7.     Should we “design babies”?

8.     Should we change our sex?