Body Lore and Laws

Andrew Bainham is a Fellow of Christ's College,Cambridge and Reader in Family Law and Policy at the University of Cambridge. Shelley Day Sclater is a Reader in Psycho-Social Studies at the University of East London and co-director of the Centre for Narrative Research. Martin Richards is Emeritus Professor of Family Research at the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge.

• Introduction, Shelley Day Sclater; bodies as property - form slavery to DNA maps, Eileen Richardson and Bryan S. Turner; giving, selling and sharing bodies, Jonathan Herring; discovering and patenting human genes, Gregory Radick; letting go .... parents, professionals and the law in retention of human material after post mortem, Mavis Maclean; male medical students and the male body, Martin H. Johnson; domestic homicide, gender and the expert, Felicity Kaganas; the many appearances of the body in feminist scholarship, Anne Bottomley; male bodies, family practices, Richard Collier; sexualities, sexual relations and the law, Andrew Bainham; hiring bodies - male clients and prostitution, Belinda Brooks-Gordon and Loraine Gelsthorpe; villain, hero or masked stranger - ambivalence in transactions with human gametes, Rachel Cook; court-ordered Cesarean sections, Jane Weaver; dehydrating bodies - the "Bland" case, the Winterton Bill and the importance of intention in evaluating end-of-life decision-making, John Keown; religion, culture and the body of the child, Caroline Bridge; future bodies - some history and future prospects for human genetic selection, Martin Richards; perceptions of the body and genetic risk, Elizabeth Chapman; science, medicine and ethical change, Derek Morgan.

A great strength of the work is the diversity of topics covered. A reader approaching this book may want to focus on a particular topic or set of topics, but, if one takes the time to read all of the essays, s/he will, I believe, come away with a renewed appreciation of the diversity and complexity of issues at stake in this arena of legal discourse. Thomas C. Shevory, Ithaca College The Law and Politics Book Review August 2002 ...a fascinating variety of perspectives and issues are included. The 18 chapters constitute a useful volume for academics and (undergraduate and postgraduate) students 'working on the body' in a range of disciplines. Lois Bibbings, University of Bristol Child and Family Law Quarterly September 2002