Re-imagining Embodiment: Prostheses, Supplements and Boundaries

Somatechnics ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 270-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margrit Shildrick
Keyword(s):  
Organ Transplantation ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Physical Disabilities ◽  
The Body ◽  
Explanatory Model ◽  
Material Base ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
Embodied Self

The question of what is at stake in the notion of the corporeal integrity of human beings is one that contemporary somatechnics must increasingly face. The reassuring image of the Cartesian body as the unified, unchanging material base of continuing existence has been radically contested not simply by postconventional modes of theoretical enquiry, but more pragmatically and disturbingly by contemporary bioscientific developments. In one influential response, the explanatory model offered by phenomenology has begun to engage with the affective significance of prostheses, whether conventionally external as with ‘replacements’ for missing limbs, or internal as with donated organs. In uncovering the inherent plasticity of the body and its multiple possibilities of intercorporeality, in incorporating both organic and inorganic non-self matter, such modes of corporeal transformation can comprehensively undo the conventional limits of the embodied self. Calling on my own substantive research into the use of prostheses in the arena of physical disabilities and more specifically in organ transplantation, I offer a rethinking of the problematic through a reading of both Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. In their respective work, the infinitely deferred possibility, and the dis-organisation, of bodily integrity suggest a celebratory re-imaging of the multiple possibilities of corporeal extensiveness.

Reification of the Human

Reified Life ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 227-248
Author(s):  
J. Paul Narkunas
Keyword(s):  
Health Service ◽  
Organ Transplantation ◽  
Human Dignity ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
The World ◽  
British Health ◽  
The Way

Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel Never Let Me Go follows a group of genetic clones who are created as wards of the British health service because they serve a utilitarian function: They are manufactured for the purpose of having their vital organs harvested until their death. The world he envisions of a grouping of humans reproduced to be a living warehouse of organs while certainly dreadful is nowhere near as horrific as when organ transplantation and global uneven development intersect in our neoliberal present. Ishiguro shows how humans who view their humanity instrumentally expedite a world that is ready to slice them into shares, monetizing all the parts along the way. Through Ishiguro’s text, I diagnose the reification of the body as an aggregation of fungible body parts. Human reification challenges bioethicists and cultural critics alike to reflect on how human dignity and bodily integrity no longer serve as barriers for marking the species-limit due to new advances in biotechnology.

“Why Should Our Bodies End at the Skin?”: Embodiment, Boundaries, and Somatechnics

Hypatia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margrit Shildrick
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Critical Disability Studies ◽  
Perfect Form ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Normative Practice ◽  
Embodied Self

Donna Haraway's enduring question—“Why should our bodies end at the skin?” (Haraway 1990, 220)—is ever more relevant in the postmodern era, where issues of bodies, boundaries, and technologies increasingly challenge not only the normative performance of the human subject, but also the very understanding of what counts as human. Critical Disability Studies has taken up the problematic of technology, particularly in relation to the deployment of prostheses by people with disabilities. Yet rehabilitation to normative practice or appearance is no longer the point; instead, the lived experience of disability generates its own specific possibilities that both limit and extend the performativity of the embodied self. I look at what is at stake in the challenge to the Western logos that comes specifically from the capacities of the disabled body, understood not as a less than perfect form of the normative, but as figuring difference in a nonbinary sense. Feminist theory has long contested the isomorphism of the logos, but I go beyond simply setting out the grounds for revaluing multiple variant forms. The feminist turn to Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze opens up the problematic to a celebratory positioning of difference and transcorporeality as the very conditions of life.

All Animals Are Equal, or Are They? The Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ’s Animal Epistle and its Unhappy End

2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarra Tlili
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Final Outcome ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Main Text ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Privileged Status

The Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ’s animal epistle is an intriguing work. Although in the body of the narrative the authors challenge anthropocentric preconceptions and present nonhuman animals in a more favourable light than human beings, inexplicably, the narrative ends by reconfirming the privileged status of humans. The aim of this paper is to propose an explanation for this discrepancy. I argue that the egalitarian message reflected in the body of the narrative is traceable back to the Qur'an, the main text with which the authors engage in the fable, whereas the final outcome is due to the Ikhwān's hierarchical worldview.

The Taste to Come

2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 238-262
Author(s):  
Virgil W. Brower
Keyword(s):  
Friedrich Nietzsche ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Martin Luther ◽  
The Body ◽  
Helene Cixous ◽  
Specific Kind ◽  
To Come

This article exploits a core defect in the phenomenology of sensation and self. Although phenomenology has made great strides in redeeming the body from cognitive solipsisms that often follow short-sighted readings of Descartes and Kant, it has not grappled with the specific kind of corporeal self-reflexivity that emerges in the oral sense of taste with the thoroughness it deserves. This path is illuminated by the works of Martin Luther, Jean-Luc Marion, and Jacques Derrida as they attempt to think through the specific phenomena accessible through the lips, tongue, and mouth. Their attempts are, in turn, supplemented with detours through Walter Benjamin, Hélène Cixous, and Friedrich Nietzsche. The paper draws attention to the German distinction between Geschmack and Kosten as well as the role taste may play in relation to faith, the call to love, justice, and messianism. The messiah of love and justice will have been that one who proclaims: taste the flesh.

An ayurvedic tablet formulation for ulcer protection

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 35-38
Author(s):  
Shiva Kumar K ◽  
Purushothaman M ◽  
Soujanya H ◽  
Jagadeeshwari S
Keyword(s):  
Pharmacological Activity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Gastric Ulcers ◽  
Antiulcer Activity ◽  
Herbal Drugs ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Synthetic Drugs ◽  
Scientific Investigations ◽  
System A ◽  
The World

Gastric ulcers or the peptic ulcer is the primary disease that affects the gastrointestinal system. A large extent of the population in the world are suffering from the disease, and the age group of people those who suffer from ulcers are 20-55years. Herbs are known to the human beings that are useful in the treatment of diseases, and there are a lot of scientific investigations that prove the pharmacological activity of herbal drugs. Practitioners have been using the herbal material to treat the ulcers successfully, and the same had been reported scientifically. Numerous publications have been made that proves the antiulcer activity of the plants around the world. The tablets were investigated for the antiulcer activity in two doses 200 and 400mg/kg in albino Wistar rats in the artificial ulcer those are induced by the ethanol. The prepared tablets showed a better activity compared to the standard synthetic drug and the marketed ayurvedic formulation. The tablets showed a dose-dependent activity in ulcer prevention and treatment. Many synthetic drugs are available for the ulcer treatment, and the drugs pose the other problems in the body by showing the side effects and some other reactions. This limits the use of synthetic drugs to treat ulcers effectively. Herbs are known to the human beings that are useful in the treatment of diseases, and there are a lot of scientific investigations that prove the pharmacological activity of herbal drugs.

A Rapture of the Nerds? A Comparison between Transhumanist Eschatology and Christian Parousia

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-367
Author(s):  
Roberto Paura
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Point Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human Species ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Universe

Transhumanism is one of the main “ideologies of the future” that has emerged in recent decades. Its program for the enhancement of the human species during this century pursues the ultimate goal of immortality, through the creation of human brain emulations. Therefore, transhumanism offers its fol- lowers an explicit eschatology, a vision of the ultimate future of our civilization that in some cases coincides with the ultimate future of the universe, as in Frank Tipler’s Omega Point theory. The essay aims to analyze the points of comparison and opposition between transhumanist and Christian eschatologies, in particular considering the “incarnationist” view of Parousia. After an introduction concern- ing the problems posed by new scientific and cosmological theories to traditional Christian eschatology, causing the debate between “incarnationists” and “escha- tologists,” the article analyzes the transhumanist idea of mind-uploading through the possibility of making emulations of the human brain and perfect simulations of the reality we live in. In the last section the problems raised by these theories are analyzed from the point of Christian theology, in particular the proposal of a transhuman species through the emulation of the body and mind of human beings. The possibility of a transhumanist eschatology in line with the incarnationist view of Parousia is refused.

Influence of Ascorbic Acid on the Structure and Function of Alpha-2- macroglobulin: Investigations using Spectroscopic and Thermodynamic Techniques

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-209
Author(s):  
Syed Saqib Ali ◽  
Mohammad Khalid Zia ◽  
Tooba Siddiqui ◽  
Haseeb Ahsan ◽  
Fahim Halim Khan
Keyword(s):  
Ascorbic Acid ◽  
Conformational Changes ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
The Body ◽  
Titration Calorimetry ◽  
Spectroscopic Techniques ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Plasma Ascorbic Acid ◽  
Dietary Antioxidant ◽  
And Function

Background: Ascorbic acid is a classic dietary antioxidant which plays an important role in the body of human beings. It is commonly found in various foods as well as taken as dietary supplement. Objective: The plasma ascorbic acid concentration may range from low, as in chronic or acute oxidative stress to high if delivered intravenously during cancer treatment. Sheep alpha-2- macroglobulin (α2M), a human α2M homologue is a large tetrameric glycoprotein of 630 kDa with antiproteinase activity, found in sheep’s blood. Methods: In the present study, the interaction of ascorbic acid with alpha-2-macroglobulin was explored in the presence of visible light by utilizing various spectroscopic techniques and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). Results: UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy suggests the formation of a complex between ascorbic acid and α2M apparent by increased absorbance and decreased fluorescence. Secondary structural changes in the α2M were investigated by CD and FT-IR spectroscopy. Our findings suggest the induction of subtle conformational changes in α2M induced by ascorbic acid. Thermodynamics signatures of ascorbic acid and α2M interaction indicate that the binding is an enthalpy-driven process. Conclusion: It is possible that ascorbic acid binds and compromises antiproteinase activity of α2M by inducing changes in the secondary structure of the protein.

Yakir Englander and Avi Sagi, Sexuality and the Body in New Religious Zionist Discourse, trans. Batya Stein. Boston: Academic Press, 2015. 298 pp.

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
The Body ◽  
Academic Press ◽  
Jewish State ◽  
Bodily Integrity ◽  
The Enlightenment

This chapter reviews the book Sexuality and the Body in New Religious Zionist Discourse (2015), by Yakir Englander and Avi Sagi, translated by Batya Stein. Sexuality and the Body in New Religious Zionist Discourse examines the positions and debates about “sexuality” in one area of the Jewish public sphere in Israel—religious Jewry—and specifically that of the Israeli religious Zionists who, following the notion of “Torah ’im Derech Eretz” first formulated by Samson Raphael Hirsch as an answer to the Enlightenment, are now struggling in a Jewish state to combine halakhic commitment with the values of modernity. Englander and Sagi focus on questions of sexuality as defined by rabbinic notions of gender attraction and bodily integrity/autonomy: those dealing with homosexuality, lesbianism, masturbation, and the relationships between the sexes.

scholarly journals The Role of Major Histocompatibility Complex in Organ Transplantation- Donor Specific Anti-Major Histocompatibility Complex Antibodies Analysis Goes to the Next Stage -

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (18) ◽  
pp. 4544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsukasa Nakamura ◽  
Takayuki Shirouzu ◽  
Katsuya Nakata ◽  
Norio Yoshimura ◽  
Hidetaka Ushigome
Keyword(s):  
Major Histocompatibility Complex ◽  
Organ Transplantation ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Human Leukocyte ◽  
Strongly Correlated ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Major Histocompatibility ◽  
Antibody Mediated Rejection ◽  
Leukocyte Antigens ◽  
Histocompatibility Complex

Organ transplantation has progressed with the comprehension of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). It is true that the outcome of organ transplantation largely relies on how well rejection is managed. It is no exaggeration to say that to be well acquainted with MHC is a shortcut to control rejection. In human beings, MHC is generally recognized as human leukocyte antigens (HLA). Under the current circumstances, the number of alleles is still increasing, but the function is not completely understood. Their roles in organ transplantation are of vital importance, because mismatches of HLA alleles possibly evoke both cellular and antibody-mediated rejection. Even though the control of cellular rejection has improved by recent advances of immunosuppressants, there is no doubt that antibody-mediated rejection (AMR), which is strongly correlated with donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies (DSA), brings a poor outcome. Thus, to diagnose and treat AMR correctly is a clear proposition. In this review, we would like to focus on the detection of intra-graft DSA as a recent trend. Overall, here we will review the current knowledge regarding MHC, especially with intra-graft DSA, and future perspectives: HLA epitope matching; eplet risk stratification; predicted indirectly recognizable HLA epitopes etc. in the context of organ transplantation.

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