A cultural studies account of how the "bio-value" of blood, stem cells, organs, and cell lines moves back and forth between 'gift' and 'commodity'.

Acknowledgments vii
Introduction: Gifts, Commodities, and Human Tissues 1
Part I. Tissue Banks: Managing the Tissue Economy 31
1. Blood Banks, Risk, and Autologous Donation: The Gift of Blood to Oneself 35
2. Disentangling the Embryonic Gift: The UK Stem Cell Bank 59
Part II. Waste and Tissue Economies 83
3. The Laws of Mo(o)re: Waste, Biovalue, and Information Ecologies 88
4. Umbilical Cord Blood: Waste, Gift, Venture Capital 110
Part III. Biogifts of Capital 131
5. Commodity-Communities and Corporate Commons 135
6. Real-Time Demand: Information, Regeneration, and Organ Markets 160
Conclusion: The Future of Tissue Economies 181
Notes 189
Bibliography 207
Index 227

Catherine Waldby and Robert Mitchell