The ever-evolving configuration of the right to physical integrity

Authors

  • Amelia Pascual Medrano

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/redc114.02

Keywords:

Body, availability, fundamental Right, physical integrity, subject matter, organs, parts, person, thing, property.

Abstract

The subject-matter of the right to physical integrity has undergone very significant changes as of late. The inviolability and non-availability of our own body, based upon the classic idea that identifies the person with his or her body, does not provide a global juridical answer to a troublesome environment that is becoming ever more complex: the human body as an entity conceived of as a whole, the human body parts, the body as something natural or artificial, or as an entity producing different outputs… The human body requires a specific and independent juridical regulation which challenges the assumptions made by the widely acknowledged fundamental right to physical integrity.