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Human Body

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Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics

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Abstract

This entry discusses the history of philosophical and emerging medical conceptions of the human body as part of a mind/body system, as a biological organism available to rational, scientific understanding, and subsequently as a focus for diverse perspectives recognizing and addressing the question of lived experiences of human difference. There are now multiple approaches to the human body in the field of bioethics, including those continuing in the positivist tradition, where ethical questions are conceptualized in abstraction from the flow of the medical quotidian, and those that perceive the ethical as embracing the matrix of a necessarily embodied experience unfolding between particular individuals. Issues of the social organization and social values informing medical decision-making and control in the different historical eras are also discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

    Paul A. Komesaroff

  2. Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia

    Sally M. Gardner

Authors
  1. Paul A. Komesaroff
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  2. Sally M. Gardner
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Correspondence to Paul A. Komesaroff .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Duquesne University Center for Healthcare Ethics, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Henk ten Have

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Komesaroff, P.A., Gardner, S.M. (2015). Human Body. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_230-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_230-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05544-2

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