Homo economicus: commercialization of body tissue in the age of biotechnology.

The human body is becoming hot property, a resource to be "mined," "harvested," patented, and traded commercially for profit as well as scientific and therapeutic advances. Under the new entrepreneurial approach to the body old tensions take on new dimensions -- about consent, the fair distribution of tissues and products developed from them, the individual and cultural values represented by the body, and public policy governing the use of organs and tissues.