Ownership over body detached parts: a test for the property approach

Abstract

The legal status of detached human body parts (either organs, tissue, cells or fluids) is under discussion, due to the lack of clarity of such a status and to the pressing need of it. The “property approach” suggests the general status of objects of private property as the most suitable for the detached parts of human bodies. Undoubtedly, the property approach shows many advantages; but they may not be enough to justify it. Looking for a fair assessment of this proposal, we begin by identifying the goals that should by satisfied by the legal status of human detached parts; then we build an expediency test with these goals; lastly, we apply our test to private property. The test result seems to be negative.