Publications of Brigitte Feuillet-Liger

Basic pillars of legal thinking on the human body in the Hungarian medical law: dignity, self-determination and the principle of noncommodification

For many centuries, the human body has been treated as one with the person by virtue of a legal fiction. However, for some time now, biotechnological progress has enabled us to disassociate the two. Indeed, we live in an age where the body has become an object of scientific enquiry, its parts transplanted into another’s body, or considered merely as biological material for use by others. As a result, what we can do with the body and its parts has become increasingly important for society, and its protection becomes a central concern. It is this concern which is examined in this book through the study of seventeen different jurisdictions, and their respective cultures. Several issues are examined here: in all the countries studied, how is the human body distinguished from the person herself? Does the law protect the body, and if so, to what degree? Is an individual under a duty to protect her own body? What legal principles have been adopted in order to ensure that the body is protected? Do the principles reveal a common philosophical approach or are they rather the result of cultural diversity? If the principles are violated, what recourse does the individual have? At the heart of this book is the exploration of how the human body in all its states, living or dead, is confronted by biomedical progress as witnessed by the twenty-two contributions from an international and multidisciplinary perspective. Law, anthropology, philosophy, ethics and sociology all have a take on the subject. The comparative nature of the work draws together lawyers from Europe, North and South America, North Africa, Turkey and Japan. Such a legal journey, interspersed with other disciplinary analyses, will enable the reader not only to understand how different laws treat the human body, but also to appreciate the fundamental values which underpin how the human body is protected in a variety of countries and cultures.

Demographic Influences on the Regulation of the Female Body in Hungary

Object of fascination and fantasy, the female body can be idealized, reified or shrouded. "It is we who make women what they are worth and that is why they are worthless", proclaimed Mirabeau in the days of the Enlightenment, to which Aragon later replied: "Woman is the future of Man". The ambiguities of the female body are therein exposed. This work examines the relationship between the female body and biomedicine. Many possibilities are offered to women through biomedical techniques: from assistance to procreate (with assisted reproduction) to refusal to do so (contraception, voluntary sterilization, termination of pregnancy); to be informed of genetic predispositions (through the use of available genetic tests); or to improve their physical appearance with cosmetic surgery. But a recurrent question arises: with its rapid progress and its extreme medicalization of the body, can biomedicine liberate women? Or rather, given the risks of the commodification of the body or its parts, is it not a source of exploitation ? The authors of this work, jurists, anthropologists, philosophers, sociologists and doctors, have explored these questions. The contributions from nineteen countries in this international multidisciplinary study analyse the reality of the amazing developments of biomedicine on the female body. Numerous systems are compared for the first time; European, African, North and South American, but also Chinese and Japanese. Beyond highlighting differences, and identifying similarities in the development of "enhancement medicine", the objective of this work is ultimately to show the complexity surrounding the question of a woman's freedom over her body and the extent to which this is limited by the State.