Who owns your body? Legal issues on the ownership of bodily material

Abstract

Who owns your body and parts removed from it? Can you legally sell your bodily material - or information derived from it? Can you legally prevent other people gaining access to your excised bodily material, including your blood relatives who might need your tissue or genetic information for their own genetic tests? What legal remedies are there if people take or use your bodily material without your consent? And why are the answers to these questions vitally important for scientists?