Metalaşan İnsan Bedeni: Plasentanın Kullanımına Etik ve Fıkhî Bir Eleştiri
The Commodification of the Human Body: An Ethical and Fiqhī Critique of Placental Use

Summary/Abstract: Advancements in contemporary medical science have enabled the use of various human-derived waste materials in medicine, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. Among these, the placenta, an organ that ceases its biological function after childbirth and becomes a discarded bodily material, has gained growing attention for its diverse applications. Today, it is employed in cultural practices such as placentophagy (the consumption of the placenta) as well as in medical treatments including tissue engineering, wound healing, and burn therapy. Despite its perceived biomedical value, the placenta’s utilization raises significant ethical and jurisprudential concerns. Ethically, it challenges core principles such as human dignity, autonomy, non-maleficence, justice, and the potential commodification of the human body. Jurisprudentially, the issue invites debates about whether human-derived substances—such as hair, skin, teeth, milk, blood, and bone are considered najis (ritually impure), whether their use or sale is permissible, and how such questions intersect with the Islamic principle of karāmat al-nās (human dignity). This study aims to elucidate the dignity attributed to the human being and to elements of the human body through an examination of the placenta as a discarded biological material with moral, ethical, and fiqhī dimensions, thereby seeking to make an original contribution to the existing literature. Moreover, by taking the placenta as a case study, the article demonstrates that the use of certain human-derived waste biological materials—such as feces and urine—for medical, pharmacological, and cosmetic purposes within the possibilities offered by modern medicine may constitute a problematic ethical and fiqhī ground. In this respect, the study emphasizes the need for careful scrutiny of such practices and contributes to a renewed reflection on the normative boundaries governing the human body.

• Details
• Contents