Ethics, Moral Life and the Body (PDF)

Rhonda M. Shaw is a sociologist at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her research interests include the history of the sociology of morality, the contribution of sociology to bioethics, and empirical research on tissue and organ exchange.

'In her compelling and original book, Rhonda Shaw points to the important ways sociology extends the professional and philosophical conversation about the ethics of donating the parts and products of our bodies: organs, ova, and breast milk. Her research makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the moral dimensions of our embodied and social selves.'

-Raymond De Vries, University of Michigan, US

'[This book] provides a very impressive analysis of issues that should be at the centre of social inquiry. Drawing on an extensive range of social scientific and philosophical analysis, as well as a body of innovative empirical research, she has conducted over a number of years, Shaw has produced a book that deserves to be widely read.'

-Barry Smart, University of Portsmouth, UK

'Whereas bioethics is criticized all too often for responding to ethical quandaries only after technological innovations become routine, Rhonda Shaw demonstrates the power of sociological inquiry in anticipating the complexity and, at times, slipperiness of the morality of medicalization's proliferation. In the best tradition of sociomedical scholarship, Shaw underscores the body's significance as a key site of inquiry, her work grounded in three sites of technological intervention: organ donation, reproduction, and breast milk exchange. This is an engaging, insightful, and masterful work.'

Lesley A. Sharp, Columbia University, US