ABSTRACT
Creating a list of fundamental human rights is a controversial project, but there is one right that appears in many lists-a right to bodily integrity, security, or control over one's own body. Those promoting property-like rights in the organic, integrated, human body that must be alienable for money, as a matter of fundamental rights, are descriptively wrong about property. The concept of a monolithic, fundamental right to bodily “integrity” is both descriptively and normatively wrong. The concept of a monolithic, fundamental right to bodily “integrity” is both descriptively and normatively wrong. There should be no legal “right to control one’s own body,” saleable or not, with a scope that matches up perfectly with the physical borders of the organic, physically continuous human body. The chapter argues against the use of autonomy as a basis for property-like fundamental rights in the body or any other form of property that would trump typical political concerns such as public health or even parentalism.
