As the use of human body parts has become increasingly commercialized, a need has arisen for new approaches to regulation that moves beyond the paradigm of altruism. During the course of this discussion, the notion of property has become a key concept. Focusing on practical and conceptual perspectives, the multidisciplinary group of authors, which includes specialists in philosophy, law, sociology, biology and medicine, have come together with practicing lawyers to consider both legal provisions and patterns of regulation in countries across Europe. Identifying divergences between different legal traditions, the authors explore various conceptual models which could be used to improve and to guide policy making. With this twin focus on practical and conceptual perspectives, this volume sets the standard for a detailed and innovative discussion of issues surrounding the regulation of research on human tissue.

Contents: Introduction, Michael Steinmann; Part I Reciprocity and Participation: Overcoming the Models of 'Gift' and 'Altruism': Altruism in medical donations reconsidered: the reciprocity approach, Peter Sÿkora; Notes on policy, language and human tissue, Richard Tutton. Part II Donation in the Light of Human Embodiment: Why the body matters: the symbolic significance of human tissue, Alastair V. Campbell; Duties towards our bodies Michael Steinmann. Part III Towards a Richer Understanding of Property in Ethics and Law: Property in human tissue: triangulating the issue, Roger Brownsword; Property rights in the body - a philosophical approach, Barbro Fröding; Reflections on entitlements in the human body from and equity perspective, Nils Hoppe. Part IV Models of Governance: Pitfalls and Possibilities: Using tissue and material from the human body for biomedical research: proposals for a normative model, Christian Lenk and Nils Hoppe; Preventing conflicts of interests in the field of human biological materials: the 'contractual model' as an avant-garde, Christine Noiville; The model of trust, Caroline Mullen; Moore's law and the taxman: some theses on the regulation of property in human tissue, Jasper A. Bovenberg; An investigation of the conception, management and regulation of tangible and intangible property in human tissue: the PropEur project, Caroline Mullen and Heather Widdows. Part V The Persisting Challenges of Regulation: Personal rights over an individual's biological sample stored for research, Aitziber Emaldi-Cirión; Human biological materials between civil, trade and health law: ethical, anthropological and legal implications of conflicts of law system, Cathérine Labrusse-Riou; Indirect commodification of ova donation for assisted reproduction and for human cloning research: proposals for supranational regulation, Ingrid Schneider; Accessing genetic information: anomalies arising from the regulation of genetic material and genetic information in t