The Human Body Shop

You really need to read this. It is an important book about bio-ethics. It is out of date, but it still is really important. The reason it is out of date is that it needs to continue onward. I purchase this book and have my friends read it. They are shocked when they read it. It is really important that you know this information. This is about your life and your body and improtant issues that were just glossed over by society. Do you realize the value of your DNA and your organs in money terms? Is that correct ethically that our body means dollars??? Who gets these organs? Is it really random? What do they do with a placenta after a human gives birth? This is your personal property and look what is being done with it. Super Stimulating Non Fiction read.

In the vein of his mentor Jeremy Rifkin, Andy Kimbrell has written a broadside condemning all aspects of the bio-industries extant at the 1993 publication date of this book. Well written, and thoroughly researched this is a highly readable in-depth review of the major bioethical issues facing us today. I recommend this book highly and not just because I am in the index. The chapter in which I am mentioned deals with the Harvard or oncomouse and patents on living beings. Andy's account is accurate, well researched, and his opinions are thoughtful and well grounded. If you are not repelled by the politics of Jeremy Rifkin, but have an open mind on the questions of the ethics of biotechnology, this book is well worth your attention.

Highly recommended! Kimbrell's book is both thought provoking and informative and is very hard to put down. He addresses the things that the newspapers do not tell us about surrogate motherhood, organ marketing and genetic engineering. He tells about the odd court cases and rulings dealing with issues society has never had to deal with before. He also gives examples of how genetics is being used to affect our lives without our consent. The book does an excellent job of raising the reader's awareness of how our species future is presently at a crossroads and why we should be concerned. Interesting topic, clearly presented and well referenced for those wanting more.

Thousands of men and women were originally conceived in petri dishes in laboratories from sperm sold by anonymous men for an average payment of 50 dollars. What is the long-term psychological effect on such persons who must live with the knowledge that their conception occurred outside a womb and their fathers were involved in it only for money? This is one of the many questions that Andrew Kimbrell raises in The Human Body Shop, in which he covers the full range of issues relating to the treatment of the human body and its components as marketable commodities, from the controversy in the 1950's and 60's over the sale of human blood to the looming possibilities of human genetic engineering. These are global issues; for example, while the sale of body parts for transplants is illegal in the U.S., the sale of kidneys is a thriving business in India and other developing countries, where the poor are selling their body parts to the rich. Another controversial practice is surrogate motherhood; thousands of babies have been born of mothers who were contracted for the nine-month gestation service, usually for a fee of 10,000 dollars. Since a 1980 Supreme Court decision that a living organism (an oil-eating microbe) could be patented, the patenting of life has become an accepted practice. As of 1997 over forty animals had been patented, including mice, turkeys, and rabbits. Human cells and hundreds of human genes have also been patented. Kimbrell poses the question of whether genetic engineering will eventually lead to the patenting of a human being? While treating the reader to a highly interesting recounting of the histories of controversial biotech practices, Kimbrell makes a cogent argument that the marketing of life is dehumanizing; he calls for increased government control in the biotech field, especially as we enter the era of human genetic engineering. There is unquestionably a need for more public debate on biotech issues, but Kimbrell could have helped even more to further such debate by devoting a bit more of his book to the views of biotech proponents, even though he passionately disagrees with such views. Kimbrell's failure to favor the reader with a broader range of views dropped the rating for The Human Body Shop from five stars to four.