Contested Commodities:
Reframing the Debate on Financial Incentives in the Supply of Genetic Materials

Friday, April 4, 2008
University of Chicago Law School, Room V

Organized by Michele Goodwin

SCHEDULE

Recent tissue and organ scandals expose the fault lines in human biological supply and demand in the United States. These scandals spread across the front pages of newspapers, reading like plots from B grade horror movies, revealing bizarre happenings at funeral homes, crematoriums, and even medical schools. The stories follow similar trajectories: body parts robbed from funeral homes and pillaged for parts; medical schools selling cadavers; and more recently the claim that a doctor hastened the death of a patient to harvest the organs. These narratives are animated by the tremendous demand for human biological supply and suppliers resorting to crafty—and often clandestine measures—to procure them. With over one million allograft surgeries taking place each year in the United States, supply must come from somewhere.

Yet, recent body part scandals obscure the other contested and equally commoditized spaces mapped on the human body. Wombs, ova, sperm, embryos, and children represent additional realms of human biological commodification. Here, the essences of life—the building blocks—become regularly and intensely subjected to market norms. What contributes to the differences in how these spheres (organs vs. ova and the like) are perceived in the common view, regulated by legislatures, or reflected on by the judiciary has much to do with our perceptions and normative understandings of the human body.

This conference is a forum for picking apart what contributes to our understanding and determinations as to what is appropriately commodifiable and what is not. It considers the tremendous demands for substances like organs, as well as information demands that can only be satisfied by researching and unpacking the human body. Conference participants consider the viability and ethics of organ commodification, baby markets, patents based as human cell lines, as well as how tax systems might handle such questions.

The conference papers consider how we might begin to create frameworks that move the discussion about incentives for human biological materials beyond hypothetical treatments in the literature to test them at the state level and federal levels.

This event will be open to students at the law school. As well, students and faculty at all University of Chicago schools and other Chicago area colleges and universities are invited to attend. The event is free but space is limited and you must register in advance. Early registrants will receive a complimentary ticket to the Keynote lecture by Richard Epstein and lunch.  The Registration page has additional information on registering for the event. If you have any questions, please contact Marjorie Holme at 773-702-0220 or mholme@uchicago.edu.

Abstracts for the papers are here. ABSTRACTS

Participants:
Dorothy Brown, Visiting Professor, Emory University, Professor of Law, Washington and Lee University
Mary Anne Case, University of Chicago Law School
Richard Epstein, University of Chicago Law School (Keynote Speaker)
Martha Ertman, University of Maryland Law School
Lee Fennell, University of Chicago Law School
Jose Gabilondo, Associate Professor of Law, Florida International Law School
Nevin Gewertz, University of Chicago Law School student 
Michele Goodwin, Visiting Professor of Law, University of Chicago; Everett Fraser Professor of Law and Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota
Stephen Hilgartner, Associate Professor, Chair, Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University
Benjamin Hippen, Transplant Nephrologist, Member of UNOS/OPTN Ethics Committee
Kim Krawiec, Professor of Law, University of North Carolina Law School
Jake Linford, University of Chicago Law School student
Ray Madoff, Professor of Law, Boston College Law School
Song Richardson, Professor of Law, DePaul Law School 
Lainie Ross, Professsor of Medicine, University of Chicago Medical School
Mary Simmerling, Professor, Weill Cornell Medical College
Debora Spar, Professor, Harvard Business School
Lior Strahilevetz, University of Chicago Law School
Harriet Washington, Renowned Author, Editor and Journalist