Abstract/Summary

This thesis examines the recognition of a new category of human rights which I term somatic rights – rights related to the sphere of making decisions about one’s own body (derived from the Greek word “soma” meaning body). Given that the question of the protection of a right to make decisions about one’s own body spans many different areas of our intimate lives, it is crucial that we determine a framework in which such a right can be clearly articulated. Uncertainty about the nature of rights related to what a person chooses to do with their body results in us trying to squeeze them into existing rights. However, rather than subsume these specific interests under existing legal constructions, I argue that we should change the focus and go beyond the framework of the existing approaches. To this effect, the hypothesis about the existence of an independent category of human rights related to the body is made. Exploring the different aspects of the human body’s role in an individual’s life enables us to identify the connection between a person and their body as the moral justification for an independent right to decide on issues concerning one’s own body. I propose a novel concept of body integrity to reflect the ideal state of the connection between us and our bodies, which is characterised by achieving oneness between how a person sees their body and how a person experiences it. This concept of body integrity is superior to existing traditional concepts such as autonomy and bodily integrity, hitherto called upon when conceptualising decision-making to do with the body. I test this concept through an analysis of existing case law to reveal the improvements that this new category of rights could bring. Consequently, my work spans both a theoretical and practical perspective, providing a robust foundation to justify and extol the necessity of dedicated somatic rights.