Body Lore And Laws

E-Book Overview

This is a collection of essays on the subject of law and the human body. As the title suggests, bodies and body parts are not only subject to regulation through formal legal processes, but also the meanings attached to particular bodies and body parts are aspects of broader cultural processes. In short, bodies are subjected to both lore and laws. The contributors, all leading academics in Law, Sociology, Psychology, Feminism, Criminology, Biology and Genetics, offer a range of interdisciplinary papers that critically examine how bodies are constructed and regulated in law. The book is divided into two parts. Part one is concerned with "Making Bodies" and includes papers relating to transactions in human gametes, cloning, court-ordered caesarean sections, testing for genetic risk, the patenting of human genes and the social policy implications of the growth in genetic information. Part two is concerned with "Using and Abusing Bodies". It contains chapters relating to sexualities, sexual orientation and the law, sex workers and their clients, domestic homicide, religious and cultural practices and other issues involving children's bodies, the ownership of the body and body parts, and the legal and ethical issues surrounding euthanasia.

E-Book Content

BODY LORE AND LAWS Body Lore and Laws Edited by ANDREW BAINHAM SHELLEY DAY SCLATER and MARTIN RICHARDS OXFORD – PORTLAND OREGON 2002 Hart Publishing Oxford and Portland, Oregon Published in North America (US and Canada) by Hart Publishing c/o International Specialized Book Services 5804 NE Hassalo Street Portland, Oregon 97213-3644 USA Distributed in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg by Intersentia, Churchillaan 108 B2900 Schoten Antwerpen Belgium © The editors and contributors 2002 The editors and contributors severally have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work Hart Publishing is a specialist legal publisher based in Oxford, England. To order further copies of this book or to request a list of other publications please write to: Hart Publishing, Salter’s Boatyard, Folly Bridge, Abingdon Road, Oxford OX1 4LB Telephone: +44 (0)1865 245533 or Fax: +44 (0)1865 794882 e-mail: [email protected] WEBSITE: http//www.hartpub.co.uk British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data Available ISBN 1–84113–197–0 (hardback) 1–84113–196–2 (paperback) Typeset by Hope Services (Abingdon) Ltd. Printed and bound in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd, www.biddles.co.uk Preface This collection of essays is the product of a series of seminars held by the Cambridge Socio-Legal Group in 2000. As with our first book (What is a Parent? A Socio-Legal Analysis (1999) ), each chapter was originally presented as a paper for discussion by the Group before it was edited for the book. Once again the Editors owe their thanks to Jill Brown, Secretary of the Centre for Family Research, for the role she has played in helping in the organisation of the seminars and in the process of preparing the papers for publication. Julie Jessop has played an indispensable role as a copy editor for the book and Sally Roberts has contributed her technical skills. We are very grateful to these three who made the editorial role manageable. ANDREW BAINHAM SHELLEY DAY SCLATER MARTIN RICHARDS June 2001 Contents Notes on Contributors ix 1. Introduction S HELLEY D AY S CLATER 2. Bodies as Property: from Slavery to DNA Maps E ILEEN R ICHARDSON AND B RYAN S. T URNER 3. Giving, Selling and Sharing Bodies J ONATHAN H ERRING 4. Discovering and Patenting Human Genes G REGORY R ADICK 5. Letting Go . . . Parents, Professionals and the