Ownership Rights over Ones Person Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Ownership Rights over Ones Person - Essay Example However, quite a few pundits have believed that Locke's argument is only applicable in the state of nature but not in civil society, where property is decided not by one's work or effort but by laws. (Arneil 1996, p. 155) On the other hand, ownership is defined as "a particular type of property interest in which the person designated as owner is deemed, in some sense at least, to have the greatest possible interest in the thing." (Clarke 2005, p. 180) Another definition of ownership categorizes the owner as an individual who has ultimate control. (Waldron 1988, p. 47) But this theory cannot be said to be without any flaw. Although it has been said that ownership carries with it property rights and incidents, it is to be understood that ownership has a social aspect and the interest over it is not unbounded. The right to ownership is not absolute; there are some limitations to the enjoyment of one's right to property and ownership. Basic examples of these limitations include the prohibition of nuisance and injurious usage of a property; legal responsibility to taxation, execution and expropriation; State rules intended to regulate the use of property; and sometimes, imposition of certain obligations. While there are some limitations to the enjoyment of one's property a... In the incident of control, the right to possession, use and management are included. The right to possess is that inherent right to obtain physical control over the thing, while the right to use is characterized by the owner's personal use and enjoyment of the thing owned. Both of these rights include consumption and modification. The right to manage, on the other hand, is that right to choose and determine the manner and the person with which and with whom the thing owned shall be used. The income incidents, in contrast, include the right to income or the fruits, profits and rent produced by the thing owned. Other incidents consist of the right to capital, right to security, power of transmissibility, the absence of term, the prohibition of harmful use, liability to execution and the incident of residuarity. Being incidents of ownership, the foregoing rights are inherent in the concept of ownership of property. Now that the basic definition and concept of property and ownership have already been extensively discussed, let's go back to the earlier question with regard to the classification of body and/or its parts as "property". In his book Second Treatise of Government, John Locke wrote: Though the earth and all inferior creatures be common to all men, yet every man has a "property" in his own "person." This nobody has a right to but himself. The "labour" of his body and the "work" of his hands, we may say, are probably his. (Locke 2004, 17) The essential meaning of this connotation is that, a human being has all the right and ownership over his own "person." But does it mean he can have all the incidents of ownership over his person Can one appropriate and alienate his own person What about his own body The answer