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Bio-X: Removing Bodily Contingency in Regenerative Medicine

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Abstract

This paper addresses the social, cultural, and ethical dynamics of research in regenerative medicine. The author turns to both science fiction and recent developments in regenerative medicine for clues about the future of the body and medical practice, suggesting that regenerative medicine uses the body as its own resource for the purposes of preserving life, and that by attempting to remove the body from the limitations of both mortality and contingency, regenerative medicine fundamentally alters the meaning of “human.”

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Thacker, E. Bio-X: Removing Bodily Contingency in Regenerative Medicine. Journal of Medical Humanities 23, 239–253 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016898419264

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