ABSTRACT
Our bodies are ‘leaky’, to use the term coined by Margrit Shildrick. Not just in the sense that our bodies leak out material, but that the meaning and understanding of the self is a concept that cannot be fully captured by a single concept or approach. This chapter seeks to argue that a key component of understanding our bodies is that they exist in relationship with other bodies, are inter-dependent with other bodies and are in a constant state of flux. These aspects are not caught by the approaches normally taken to legal status of bodies based on property or rights to integrity or privacy. Our true sense of self and identity is not found in our confined, owned body, but in the breaking, mixing and interaction of our bodies with others and with the wider environment.
