Chapter 6.B.2: Whose Body Is It Anyways?

There is a robust legal literature on organ donation. For some starting readings, see Allison Tong et al., Living Kidney Donor Assessment, 13 Am. J. Transplantation 2912 (2013)Morgan E. Grams et al., Kidney-Failure Risk Projection for the Living Kidney-Donor Candidate, 374 New Eng. J. Med. 411 (2016); Martin D. Jendrisak et al., Altruistic Living Donors, 6 Am. J. Transplantation 115 (2006); Paul E. Morrissey et al., Good Samaritan Kidney Donation, 27 Transplantation 1369 (2005); Lainie Friedman Ross et al., Ethics in Living Donor Transplantation, in Transplantation of the Liver 65 (Ronald W. Busuttil & Göran B.G. Klintmalm eds., 3d ed. 2015);Kavita Arora & Valarie Blake, Uterus Transplantation, 125 Obstetrics & Gynecology 971 (2015); David Orentlicher, Toward Acceptance of Uterus Transplants, 42(6) Hastings Center Rep. 12 (2012); I. Glenn Cohen, Borrowed Wombs: On Uterus Transplants and the Right to Experience Pregnancy, 2022 U. Chi. L. Forum 127 (2024); Brendan Parent, Informing Donors About Hand and Face Transplants, 10 J. Health & Biomedical L. 309 (2015); Maria Siemionow et al., Successes and Lessons Learned after More han a Decade of Upper Extremity and Face Transplantation, 18 Curr. Opin. Organ Transplantation 633 (2013).

For more on Moore and the ownership and control human tissue, see See Anya E. R. Prince, Comprehensive Protection of Genetic Information: One Size Privacy or Property Models May Not Fit All, 79 Brooklyn L. Rev. 175 (2013); Elizabeth E. Joh, Reclaiming “Abandoned” DNA: The Fourth Amendment and Genetic Privacy, 100 Nw. U. L. Rev. 857 (2006); Elizabeth E. Joh, DNA Theft: Recognizing the Crime of Nonconsensual Genetic Collection and Testing, 91 B.U. L. REV. 665, 670 (2011); Specimen Science (Suzanne M. Rivera, Barbara E. Bierer, Holly Fernandez Lynch, & I. Glenn Cohen eds. 2017); Robert A. Katz, The Re-Gift of Life: Can Charity Law Prevent For-Profit Firms from Exploiting Donated Tissue and Nonprofit Tissue Banks?, 55 DePaul L. Rev. 943 (2006); Michelle Oberman, When the Truth Is Not Enough: Tissue Donation, Altruism, and the Market, 55 DePaul L. Rev. 903 (2006); Jenny Reardon & Kim TallBear, “Your DNA Is Our History” Genomics, Anthropology, and the Construction of Whiteness as Property, 53 S5 Current Anthropology S233, 238 (2012); Radhika Rao, Genes and Spleens: Property, Contract, or Privacy Rights in the Human Body?, 35 J. L. Med. & Ethics 371, 378 (2007); Debra Harry & Le’a Malia Kanehe, Assessing Tribal Sovereignty over Cultural Property: Moving Towards Protection of Genetic Material and Indigenous Knowledge, 5 Seattle J. Soc. Just. 27 (2006).