Introduction: The Ethics of Biomedical Tourism

Although we struggle for rights over our bodies, the very bodies for which we struggle are not quite ever only our own. The body has its invariably public dimension. Constituted as a social phenomenon in the public sphere, my body is and is not mine. Given over from the start to the world of others, it bears their imprint, is formed within the crucible of social life; only later and with some uncertainty, do I lay claim to my body as my own, if, in fact, I ever do. (Butler 2004: 26)