The Global Body Market

Offers a frank conversation about altruism in the global body market and critiques the vulnerability of altruism to corruption, coercion, pressure, and other negative externalities.

Black and gray markets for body parts are illegal, but also pioneering and inventive. Although this type of criminal activity requires dexterity and innovation, these markets thrive and flourish, sometimes in view of law. On the other hand, altruistic procurement is mired by low participation, which encourages black market transactions. Thousands of patients die each year waiting for an organ or bone marrow donation through the altruistic procurement system, so some turn to the dark side. This book offers a frank discussion of altruism in the global body market. It exposes how researchers exploit their patients' ignorance to harvest tissue samples, blood, and other biologics without consent, chronicles exploitation in the name of altruism, including the non-consensual use of children in dangerous clinical trials, and analyzes social and legal commitments to the value of altruism - offering an important critique of the vulnerability of altruism to corruption, coercion, pressure, and other negative externalities.

Publisher description

Black and gray markets for body parts are illegal, but also pioneering and inventive. Although this type of criminal activity requires dexterity and innovation, these markets thrive and flourish, sometimes in view of law. On the other hand, altruistic procurement is mired by low participation, which encourages black market transactions. Thousands of patients die each year waiting for an organ or bone marrow donation through the altruistic procurement system, so some turn to the dark side. This book offers a frank discussion of altruism in the global body market. It exposes how researchers exploit their patients' ignorance to harvest tissue samples, blood, and other biologics without consent, chronicles exploitation in the name of altruism, including the non-consensual use of children in dangerous clinical trials, and analyzes social and legal commitments to the value of altruism - offering an important critique of the vulnerability of altruism to corruption, coercion, pressure, and other negative externalities.

As numerous jurisdictions implement emissions mitigation mechanisms that put a price on carbon, this incisive book explores the emerging emissions markets and their diverse and fragmented nature. It proposes an innovative model for connecting such markets, offering a significantly more successful and expeditious achievement of climate policy objectives.

During the twentieth century, medicine has been radically transformed and powerfully transformative. In 1900, western medicine was important to philanthropy and public health, but it was marginal to the state, the industrial economy and the welfare of most individuals. It is now central to these aspects of life. Our prospects seem increasingly dependent on the progress of bio-medical sciences and genetic technologies which promise to reshape future generations. The editors of Medicine in the Twentieth Century have commissioned over forty authoritative essays, written by historical specialists but intended for general audiences. Some concentrate on the political economy of medicine and health as it changed from period to period and varied between countries, others focus on understandings of the body, and a third set of essays explores transformations in some of the theatres of medicine and the changing experiences of different categories of practitioners and patients.

Exploring in depth the institutions that underpin the global economy, this study provides invaluable insights into why a minimum economic order has endured for so long and why states are unwilling to establish a maximum order, a global safety net for all. The author investigates how debt – a critical component of states’ economic infrastructure – leads to debilitating crises, and how these crises undermine the economic autonomy and political independence of states.

Insulated from the dust, noise, and crowds churning outside, China's luxury hotels are staging areas for the new economic and political landscape of the country. These hotels, along with other emerging service businesses, offer an important, new source of employment for millions of workers, but also bring to light levels of inequality that surpass most developed nations. Examining how gender enables the globalization of markets and how emerging forms of service labor are changing women's social status in China, Markets and Bodies reveals the forms of social inequality produced by shifts in the economy. No longer working for the common good as defined by the socialist state, service workers are catering to the individual desires of consumers. This economic transition ultimately affords a unique opportunity to investigate the possibilities and current limits for better working conditions for the young women who are enabling the development of capitalism in China.