Cody Luong
Susan Marsala
English 201C
09/22/2014
Have we come to a point where the commercialization of our bodies has gone too
far? Why or Why Not?
These days, you can buy almost anything. Sperm and eggs are advertised on the
newspaper, and over the internet. Human organs are being bought and sold around the
world. A luxurious jail can be bought. Even certain moral practices or public behaviors
can be bought. We not only live in a market economy, but a society of commodification.
However, in certain cases, body parts needs to be subjected as a property right. The life
of Henrietta Lacks has been taken without her knowledge or rights. Organ trafficking is
a heavy issue in the most, probable illegal black market. The first three articles in this
issue focuses on the property rights of human commodification. In the article, The
Human Commodity, Wilsterman describes the limit of commercialization of our bodies.
(Wilsterman). In the article, The Argument for Property Rights in Body Parts: Scarcity of
Resources, the most absolute definition of property rights is recognized, and
emphasized to make clear of any misunderstandings (Douglas). In the article,
Commodification: The Essence of Our Time, commodity is recognized as a negativity by
the government and has unnecessary consequences (Satel). Next, a journal of
Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is informed to present the
dangers of commercialization of our bodies (Being Wicked). Body Snatchers: Organ
Harvesting For Profit, informs us the messed up issues of indirect human trafficking,
violating human legal rights and executing many crimes (Archer). Finally, Selling Organs
for Transplant provides an example of commercialization of our bodies going too far
(Cline). All of these articles points toward the objectification as a crime, a story told of a
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“poor black tobacco farmer” (Being Wicked), and the destruction and tragedy of organ
trafficking. To relate, these articles helps inform the readers about the pressures to drive
society to commodity and to help us understand the identity of the human body when
they are conceptualized under market categories.
In “The Human Commodity,” the author James M. Wilsterman describes the limit
of selling body parts – eggs, sperms, blood, hair and souls are legal, but their organs
are off the market. He holds that many Americans believe “that certain forms of human
modification… violate human dignity” (Wilsterman). This is important, because if
everything can be bought with money, it is impractical and leads to the corruption of
society. The ability to transfer is so restrictive is due to how exploitable the poor can get
against the rich. What if the ‘poverty’ that Wilsterman describes buys himself a car that
