The Issue of Bodily Rights Alienation

Abstract

[Abstract] A widespread Western conception about the sanctity of the human body and its parts prevents from any morally acceptable disposition of these objects. However, this entails nothing but a dualistic conception of the human being as a composite of detachable parts—namely, body and mind. Understood as the antechamber of legal rights, moral rights perform an important—yet frequently overlooked—justifying function that permeates the political discourse. Although the connection among moral, political and legal discourses should be properly acknowledged, certain boundaries are to mediate among each scope for the sake of certainty and accuracy. Intermediate realities, as the so-called human rights, serve to connect the moral and legal domains, still they also blur the lines along which the discourse is deployed. Moral entities are essentially inalienable, to the extent that they demarcate the moral status of the subject. By contrast, legal rights are essentially negotiable and, thus, alienable. The controversial instance of bodily rights will serve to test the assertions above.