1 Bioethics Beyond Altruism 9relation to how the exchange of biological materials is framed and how
human tissue is provided and procured: as a gift, a donation, as shar-
ing, an act of humanity, a gesture of solidarity or political citizenship, as
body property, or as a resource and form of biological vitality.
Biovalue and Tissue Economies
Since early 2000 we saw the emergence of a complex, substantive body
of social science and cultural studies literature theorising the capitalisa-
tion of life and human vitality by contemporary biotechnologies. This
literature has given rise to many positions and practices that cluster
around numerous ‘bio-concepts’—bioeconomics (Rose 2001 ), biocapi-
tal (Rajan 2006 ), biosociality (Rabinow 1992 ), and biovalue (Waldby
2000 , 2002 ) (for a critical appraisal of these neologisms‚ see Birch
2012 ; Birch and Tyfield 2012 ). These terms and their various permuta-
tions signify that the circulation of biological materials – such as the
transfer of stem cells‚ genes‚ blood products and reproductive materials
in the life science industries – is entangled with capitalism, and is not
simply a matter of altruism. Scholars working in this field have increas-
ingly departed from discussions of tissue provision through the bioethi-
cal lens of altruism and informed consent. Instead‚ they emphasise the
link between gift and commodity systems, principally to the benefit of
globalised pharmaceutical institutions and bio-technology companies.
For these analysts, the technological innovations and medical advances
that facilitate the transfer and transformation of biological materials, via
the collection, screening, processing, reformulation, division and distri-
bution of bodily fragments and products, make them an increasingly
valuable and lucrative area of investment.
Following Michel Foucault’s ( 1984 ) account of bio-power and
bio-politics‚ Rose ( 2001 ‚ 2007a) and Waldby ( 2000 , 2002 ), whose early
work has been instrumental in providing the conceptual framing of this
debate around the management and mobilisation of human bodies as
a resource‚ argue that bodily fragments and products have potential to
create biovalue. In Waldby’s ( 2000 ) rendering, biovalue refers to ‘a sur-
plus value of vitality’, derived from the extraction and regeneration of