Liz Sourbut
ems505@york.ac.uk
I have a BSc in physics from Durham University (1985) and an MA in Women's Studies from the University of York (1994). After many years of self-employment as a maths and physics tutor and writer/critic of science fiction I've returned to academia to study on the MPhil/DPhil programme at York, funded by the Wellcome Trust.
My thesis is a theoretical, interdisciplinary examination of whether it is appropriate to apply a property paradigm to reproductive body parts. It combines insights from political philosophy, legal scholarship and sociology in order to explore the question: ‘Would the awarding of property rights in reproductive body parts be of benefit to the women who provide such body parts for the use of others?’ This is an important topic because advances in medical technology mean that ova, in vitro embryos and aborted fetal tissue can all be used for research or therapeutic purposes and are becoming valuable commodities.
I consider the applicability of Locke’s ‘mixing of labour’ argument to the acquisition of property rights in reproductive body parts and conclude that such an argument is unhelpful for several reasons. Women do not need to justify an original acquisition of their body parts. They already stand in a more intimate relationship to them than anybody else and do not need a labour argument to support their first claim. I then go on to argue that whether, and to what extent, a body part can be considered subject to property rights depends upon context, and specifically the web of relationships between the adults with decision-making powers over them. As we progress from ova to IVF embryos to aborted fetuses the tissue becomes more entangled in the life-plans of the women (and men) who have generated it and therefore bears a decreasing resemblance to the alienable, fungible objects that are generally considered to be suitable objects of property rights.
My main conclusions are that the moral acceptability of the practice of sourcing research embryos in IVF clinics should be re-evaluated, that an overhaul of legislation and informed consent procedures to further empower women’s decision-making would be more beneficial than the assignment of property rights to body parts generated for reproduction but that ova and embryos specifically created for research could be legitimately bought and sold in a carefully regulated market.