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J Med Ethics 2006;32:209-214 doi:10.1136/jme.2004.011270
  • Law, ethics, and medicine

Bodily rights and property rights

  1. B Björkman,
  2. S O Hansson
  1. Philosophy Unit, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
  1. Correspondence to:
 Barbro Björkman
 Philosophy Unit, Royal Institute of Technology, Teknikringen 78, 100 44, Stockholm, Sweden; barbro{at}infra.kth.se
  • Received 21 November 2004
  • Accepted 28 February 2005

Abstract

Whereas previous discussions on ownership of biological material have been much informed by the natural rights tradition, insufficient attention has been paid to the strand in liberal political theory represented by Felix Cohen, Tony Honoré, and others, which treats property relations as socially constructed bundles of rights. In accordance with that tradition, we propose that the primary normative issue is what combination of rights a person should have to a particular item of biological material. Whether that bundle qualifies to be called “property” or “ownership” is a secondary, terminological issue. We suggest five principles of bodily rights and show how they can be applied to the construction of ethically appropriate bundles of rights to biological material.

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