Commodification of Body Parts in the Global South

This
book proposes the introduction of a development-related perspective to
scholarly critique of the human body’s commodification. Nahavandi contends that the commodification of human
body parts reflects a modern form of such well-known historical phenomena as
slavery and colonization, and can be considered a new and additional form of
appropriation and extraction of resources from the Global South. What
are the commonalities between hair
trade, surrogacy, kidney sale and attraction of brains? The author argues that these all
characterize a world where increasingly everything can be traded or is considered
to be tradeable. A world where, similar to any other goods, body parts have
entered the global market either legally or illegally. Through a series of
multidisciplinary comparative studies, the book explores how forms
commodification of the human body are fuelled by issues of poverty in the
Global South, and inequality in transnational relations.