If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can’t buy. But what can money not buy? Nowadays, I am able to get almost whatever I want as long as I have the money to buy it. As Professor Michael Sandel states in his book, ‘What Money Can’t Buy’, one is able to receive a prison cell upgrade in the US for $82 per night. Additionally, the right to immigrate to the United States is also up for sale. Foreigners who invest $500,000 and create at least ten job opportunities in an area of high unemployment are eligible for a green card that entitles them to a permanent residency. Although the price is not posted, top universities told the Wall Street Journal that even admission to a prestigious university can be bought. Universities admitted that they “accept less than stellar students whose parents are wealthy and likely to make substantial financial contributions”, meaning that if my parents kindly built a brand new library, worth millions, for the top university in the world, my chances of getting into the university are much more probable than a just as capable or even a student of higher academic abilities who does not have this financial advantage.

The trade of all goods and services is done via markets. A market is simply defined as a place, whether it is a physical place like a shop or a digital place such as the internet, where sellers are able to sell their goods to buyers who are able to purchase them. Through economic mechanisms of demand and supply, a price is finally found. One of the requirements in the Sale of Goods Act of 1979 is that I must “own” or have been given permission to sell the good that I am selling. This means that I am not allowed to stand outside a multi-million pound property that I have found on Oxford Street and auction it off on the market. But this requirement brings up a serious question for discussion; Are you allowed to sell whatever you own? After thinking hard, the majority would finally come to a conclusion that one is able to sell whatever they own. However, complications arise in certain circumstances.

If I own a house, I am allowed to sell my house. If I own a car, I am allowed to sell my car. If I own the ability to teach, I am allowed to sell my service of teaching. If I am allowed to sell all the physical things that I own, why am I not allowed to sell my organs? Whilst the act of selling my organs may sound very strange, I own my body, so I should be able to do whatever I want with it. And if the law prohibits me from doing so, perhaps the law is trying to imply that I don’t own it. But if I don’t own it, who does?

The law has historically refused to say that anyone owns their own body. If you own your body, you can sell it, including selling organs, prostitution or selling yourself into slavery. It also means that you can decide whether to destroy it, but until 1961 suicide was a crime. In the Yearworth v North Bristol NHS Trust case, claimants had deposited semen samples with a clinic before undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, having been told that the therapy could make them infertile. The hospital did not store the samples with enough care and they were damaged, resulting in the men suffering psychiatric injury when discovering they now could not have children. The problem was that the law did not consider the bodily fluids as personal property and so the men could not bring a claim for personal injury.

However, investigations have shown that more people are willing to trade their vital organs for “extra cash”. Advertising organs for sale is illegal in the UK and anyone caught attempting it can face a three-year jail term. However, regardless of what the law says, the World Health Organisation revealed 10,000 black market operations involving organs were taking place every year. Is it really worth selling life-fatal organs for money? As Ralph Waldo Emerson, a 19th century American lecturer said, “Money often costs too much”.

The obvious question is whether the law should intervene to prevent us selling items that we own. Whilst I believe that we own our bodies, it is clear that the law limits our ability to do what we want with them. Perhaps this is what makes the question as to whether we own ourselves or not so controversial. This is also an issue of morality and an issue that will ultimately be decided by us through our elected representatives.