Organ donation and the divine lien in Talmudic law / Madeline Kochen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kochen, Madeline, 1957- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Donation of organs, tissues, etc. (Jewish law).

Human body in rabbinical literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 258 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Other Title:

Organ Donation & the Divine Lien in Talmudic Law

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book offers a new theory of property and distributive justice derived from Talmudic law, illustrated by a case study involving the sale of organs for transplant. Although organ donation did not exist in late antiquity, this book posits a new way, drawn from the Talmud, to conceive of this modern means of giving to others. Our common understanding of organ transfers as either a gift or sale is trapped in a dichotomy that is conceptually and philosophically limiting. Drawing on Maussian gift theory, this book suggests a different legal and cultural meaning for this property transfer. It introduces the concept of the 'divine lien', an obligation to others in need built into the definition of all property ownership. Rather than a gift or sale, organ transfer is shown to exemplify an owner's voluntary recognition and fulfilment of this latent property obligation.

Contents:

Beyond gift and commodity: rethinking the compartmentalization approach to the problem of commodification

Alternate property conceptions : the donor's lien

"From the table of the most high" : divine ownership and private property in Talmudic law

"And your brother shall live with you" : the divine lien and the obligation to save human life

Returning a "lost body" with one's body : human organ transplantation as retrocession and the (re)consecration of the body.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-72021-4

1-107-72250-0

1-107-72761-8

0-511-97980-0

1-107-72997-1

1-107-72821-5

1-107-73172-0

1-107-72359-0