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BODY FOR SALE

Language Function:

pre-intermediate

discussing issues - reading comprehension

intermediate

Vocabulary / Topic:

human body - bodily fluids & substances - money - society - health ethics

upper-intermediate
advanced

focus on idiomatic expressions

Match the idiomatic expressions with their definitions.

1. to feel the pinch

A. to have enough money to buy the things that you need

2. to make ends meet

B. to sell large quantities of something in a short period of time

3. to do a roaring trade

C. to have less money than you need

focus on talking

Discuss these questions in pairs or small groups.

What can people do when they are feeling the pinch? How can they improve
their financial situation?

How far would you go to make ends meet? Would you ever consider making
money out of your body? Are there any legal ways to sell ones body?

focus on reading comprehension

You are going to read an article written by filmmaker Storm

Theunissen, who in her documentary Whats my body worth?
tries to find out how much money she could legally make from
her body. Scan the article to find the information.

1. What did Storm try to sell?

2. Is ones body worth more dead than alive?

Body For Sale

How much is a body worth?

source: The Guardian, 13 August, 2012 (link to original article)

For the most part, it's illegal to sell your body in Britain. But, in fact, there are various legal
ways human body parts can be sold that don't involve waking up in a bath of ice with a kidney
missing. In a research experiment, I tried to see how much of the human body can lawfully be
put up for sale: by trying to sell as much of my own body as I could. It turns out pretty much
everything God gave us can be sold.

Why would I do this? Body parts are sold on the black market because there's often a genuine
medical need. This year, 1,000 people in the UK will die on the organ transplant list. Couples
unable to conceive wait years for donations of egg or sperm. Some doctors argue that a legal
market for life-giving body parts should to be created in order to increase donations. But there
are enormous ethical concerns and so far the government has refused to allow any kind of
financial incentive for donors, apart from allowing some expenses. I investigated whether the
law is hindering a legitimate market, firstly looking at what's already on sale here in Britain
and whether the price is reasonable.

Sex is the most obvious thing to sell. While I wasn't prepared to prostitute myself, I "rented"
my body out as a lap-dancer. Working at a London strip joint, I found that pole dances are
given away for free, but nude lap-dances start at 20. The sales pitch to prospective dancers
is that you can earn 1,000 a night but it turns out this kind of money is a rarity. Lap-dancers
only make such amounts if get a customer to hire them by the hour. For that you earn 500
but the club takes 20%. On top of that, they'll take a 100 fee from dancers just for showing
up.

So I tried to sell my hair. I was quoted 50 by a hairdresser in London that specialises in

harvesting human hair to make wigs for chemotherapy patients. I was hoping they'd offer me
considerably more, given that wigs can sell for 1,000.

The British pharmaceutical industry uses many bodily fluids to test new drugs, and I was
hopeful for a decent sale upon learning they pay up to 1,750 for 1ml of blister fluid, 1,000
for a cup of saliva and 1,600 for a gram of earwax. But the prices are paid to intermediaries,
"virtual tissue banks" who source samples from around the world. Strictly speaking, the
money isn't for the tissue itself, it's for refrigeration, licence fees and research, but given
companies are for-profit I was sure some money should go to donors. The best offer I got was
30 for some blood. Another clinic would have paid me 50 for some skin if I had psoriasis.
However, every clinic told me that officially money is only "compensation for my time" because
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Body For Sale

the law in the UK is so strict about selling any body parts. In Britain, it's not donors who are
making the money.
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A decent earner turned out to be an auction website for people who buy bodily fluids for sexual
purposes: imagine eBay, but for fetishists. Here, one can sell anything. Human urine is about
30 a pot, breast milk 5, even fingernails and faeces do their own roaring trade. One man
offered me 1,000 a year for manicure videos.

It's paradoxical that it's possible to sell one's body for a variety of "specialised" purposes, and
yet it's virtually impossible to do so for legitimate reasons, such as for medical research. Many
in the pharmaceutical industry are hugely critical of the Human Tissue Act which governs
what's permissible to sell for medical purposes. They say it's unfeasible for companies to
recruit donors in Britain, and so they're forced to import tissue from overseas, notably
American biobank repositories.

My most valuable sale item was eggs. In the UK, they only allow donors 750 compensation,
which means almost no donors come forward and many desperate prospective parents are
driven overseas to buy eggs. But in the US, thousands of women sell eggs it's a mainstream
market.

One egg broker agreed to fly me to California for retrieval. It's a fiercely competitive industry,
egg-selling, and only the best-looking and most intelligent women get top dollar up to
$15,000. Unfortunately, because I'm 32 years old, I was told my eggs aren't worth much and
I'd "only" receive $5,500. As I was handed a giant box of hormones with which to inject myself,
I came to a belated realisation that perhaps the price wasn't worth it. It's troubling that the
trade targets very young women, many of whom don't think through the psychological
implications of doing this.

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The greatest irony of all, is that my body is undoubtedly worth more dead than alive. In
America, once a cadaver has been disarticulated into about 60 different tissues, the body
parts are processed and made into medical products, which together are worth up to $250,000
on the open market. Some companies are listed on major stock exchanges this is no niche
market.

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So by the end of my experiment, I saw some dizzying prices, but didn't end up with much in
my wallet. While it's ridiculous that people who are willing to donate bodily fluids as harmless
as urine and saliva for crucial medical cannot be paid, I did end up coming around to the oldfashioned idea that altruism must drive any decision to donate. Women who donate eggs, or
those who choose to give away a kidney must not be coerced by money to meet their bills. I
don't know the answer to the UK's terrible shortage in eggs or kidneys, but I do know that the
answer is not in writing a giant cheque.
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Body For Sale

Are these statements true (T) or false (F) according to the text?

1. In Britain you can sell all body parts legally except for kidneys.
2. UK government offers financial incentives for donors.
3. Storm has discovered that lap-dancing is not a lucrative business.
4. Storm expected to be offered more money for her hair.
5. In Britain you can be paid 1,600 for a gram of your earwax.
6. Only pharmaceutical industry is interested in buying bodily fluids.
7. Human Tissue Act makes it hard for companies to recruit donors in Britain.
8. Women can get a much higher price for their eggs in the USA than in the UK.
9. In Storms opinion people should be offered financial incentives in order to increase donations.

focus on vocabulary: bodily fluids and substances

Find the following names of bodily fluids in the text.

1. ........................................

a clear liquid inside a swollen area on your skin that was burned or rubbed

(paragraph 5)

2. ........................................

the liquid produced by glands in your mouth

(paragraph 5)

3. ........................................

a dark yellow substance in your ears

(paragraph 5)

4. ........................................

the red liquid that flows around inside your body

(paragraph 5)

5. ........................................

liquid waste from a persons body

(paragraph 6)

6. ........................................

liquid food for babies produced in mothers breasts

(paragraph 6)

7. ........................................

solid waste from a persons body

(paragraph 6)

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Body For Sale

focus on vocabulary

Explain the following expressions from the article. Use a dictionary for words and expressions
you are not familiar with.

to put something up for sale (para 1)

.............................................................................

the black market (para 2)

.............................................................................

a genuine medical need

.............................................................................

life-giving body parts (para 2)

.............................................................................

ethical concerns (para 2)

.............................................................................

to hinder something (para 2)

.............................................................................

a sales pitch (para 3)

.............................................................................

a decent earner (para 6)

.............................................................................

legitimate reasons (para 7)

.............................................................................

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permissible (para 7)

.............................................................................

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unfeasible (para 7)

.............................................................................

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biobank repository (para 7)

.............................................................................

13

mainstream market (para 8)

.............................................................................

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competitive industry (para 9)

.............................................................................

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to get top dollar (para 9)

.............................................................................

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to come to a belated realisation (para 9)

.............................................................................

17

a niche market (para 10)

.............................................................................

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dizzying prices (para 11)

.............................................................................

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to coerced someone by money

.............................................................................
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Body For Sale

focus on talking

Should a legal market for body parts be created? Should people be free to sell their body
parts if they want or need to? Prepare a list of arguments for and against a legitimate
market for body parts. Then discuss the issue in class.

ARGUMENTS FOR A LEGAL

MARKET FOR BODY PARTS

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ARGUMENTS AGAINST
A LEGAL MARKET FOR BODY
PARTS

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