Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age - Tapa dura

Provides a provocative and disturbing study of the growing trade in human DNA, tissue, blood, bones, embryos, and other commodities and assesses the implications of such access to biological material and genetic information in terms of scientific research, law enforcement, business, and more. 20,000 first printing.

f biotechnology, the body is speaking to us in new ways. Our DNA, blood, and bones ― our very being! ― have acquired currency in an exceedingly bizarre fashion that we could not have imagined even a decade ago. Valued as both a source of information and the raw material for commercial products, the tissues in a single human being can now attract millions of dollars, and with them new commercial uses for human blood and body tissue. Because of this, the risks --we face both individually and as a society --are massive and should be understood by everyone.

Body parts are useful to researchers and entrepreneurs, insurers and employers, law-enforcement authorities and immigration officials. And they are more easily available than most people suspect. Nearly all of us have blood and tissue on file. Whenever you have a blood test, a biopsy, or surgery, that tissue is potentially available without your consent. Genetic testing is mandatory in many contexts, and our DNA may become our