The Downside of Commodifying Your Body

Black-Market Scandal Shakes India's Ban on Organ Sales -

I, and Western Culture illicitly support the commodification of the body in multiple ways. We pay for superior egg and ova, we pay to enhance our physical attributes through such means as breast and calf implants, and we pay to abort unwanted fetuses. (The entire idea that it is an unwated fetus actually comes from the commodification of the body. But we have to support it illicitly to fool ourselves that we don't really commodify the body). We ban the sales of organs, though most of the middle and upper classes oppose this ban and will purchase the organs they need in China or elsewhere.

I also support unfettered capitalism. I support the right to sell any part of my body and patent any gene sequence or protein, prion, bacteria, etc. that is unique to me.

But the intersection of unfettered capitalism and growing commodification of the body, are likely to produce a very ugly period in World History. The poor, often from the poorest nations, will increasingly sell their organs. In a moderate-sized population this could result in the need for many new caretakers for all of the new post-operative complications that will pop up. The poor won't be able to pay for these health care procedures, and the rich, safe continents away won't care.

It's going to get ugly before it gets better,