Self ownership, the fight of the new generation? | Gaspard Koenig | TEDxParis
-
0:08 - 0:13I'd like to start by showing you someone
who is dressed even worse than I am. -
0:13 - 0:14[Who is this?]
-
0:15 - 0:18You may notice, aside
from the color harmony, -
0:18 - 0:20a tattoo
-
0:20 - 0:22saying: "My body belongs to me."
-
0:22 - 0:23But who is this person?
-
0:24 - 0:25Is it a punk,
-
0:26 - 0:29who borrowed clothes from
their grandmother's wardrobe? -
0:29 - 0:31Is it a teenager, from the
16th arrondissement of Paris, -
0:31 - 0:33who feels like rebelling?
-
0:34 - 0:35No.
-
0:35 - 0:38This is our Minister of Health,
-
0:39 - 0:43Marisol Touraine, standing
on the steps of the Élysée. -
0:43 - 0:47And this was last year, to celebrate
the 40th year of the Veil Abortion Act, -
0:47 - 0:51which enables women
to take control of their bodies, -
0:52 - 0:54through a voluntary interruption
of their pregnancy. -
0:56 - 0:58"My body belongs to me"
has become banal -- -
0:58 - 0:59everyone says it.
-
0:59 - 1:02By the way, for once, the
entire National Assembly -
1:02 - 1:07has voted in favor of a symbolic law
in order to reapprove the Veil Law. -
1:07 - 1:10It's a banality, even ministers
have it tattooed on their arm. -
1:13 - 1:15However, it's not entirely true.
-
1:15 - 1:18I would like to give you a few examples,
that are a little extreme, -
1:19 - 1:21honestly even shocking,
-
1:21 - 1:23which will demonstrate that for
many people -
1:23 - 1:24and in a lot of cases,
-
1:24 - 1:27well, my body doesn't belong to me.
-
1:28 - 1:30Firstly, it doesn't belong to me
-
1:31 - 1:33as long as I'm alive.
-
1:33 - 1:36I am not allowed to rent my belly.
-
1:37 - 1:41I am not allowed in many
countries to sell my sexuality. -
1:41 - 1:44I am not allowed to define
the gender that I belong to, -
1:44 - 1:47since I have to face a doctor
or be in front of a judge, -
1:47 - 1:51and declare to the civil registrar
whether I am a man, woman, or other. -
1:51 - 1:54I am also not allowed to do
whatever I want with my body. -
1:54 - 1:56For instance, I can't do this.
-
1:56 - 1:58[Dwarf-tossing]
-
1:58 - 2:00So,
-
2:00 - 2:02You might recognize Leonardo Di Caprio,
-
2:02 - 2:04in this great dwarf-tossing scene.
-
2:04 - 2:07But some versions of it exist
that are a little less chic, -
2:07 - 2:11notably the one that was practiced by
the great community of Morsang-sur-Orge -
2:11 - 2:14from l'Essonne,
in the beginning of the 90s. -
2:14 - 2:16The mayor of Morsang-sur-Orge said:
-
2:16 - 2:19"This can't go on --
we can't toss dwarfs." -
2:21 - 2:23And so he prohibited dwarf-tossing.
-
2:24 - 2:26And who was to protest?
-
2:26 - 2:29Dwarf-tossers found other
activities to do on Sundays. -
2:29 - 2:31They probably went back to fishing.
-
2:31 - 2:34It's the dwarves themselves who protested,
-
2:34 - 2:36because they had a breadwinner,
-
2:36 - 2:41and a certain renown, apparently
a certain success with women. -
2:42 - 2:44And the Morsang-sur-Orges Council
of State's decision, -
2:44 - 2:46which jurists know well,
-
2:46 - 2:48said: "No, this is forbidden."
-
2:49 - 2:52I also cannot do whatever I want
with my body in order to die. -
2:52 - 2:55I am not allowed to be euthanized,
-
2:56 - 2:58but I am also not allowed to be eaten.
-
2:59 - 3:04In 2001, a charming German engineer
posted an announcement saying: -
3:04 - 3:07"I am looking for a volunteer to eat."
-
3:08 - 3:11He received several candidates,
-
3:11 - 3:13made a selection,
-
3:14 - 3:16conducted a few final interviews,
-
3:17 - 3:20and in the end finally found Bernt,
who agreed wholeheartedly. -
3:21 - 3:24So they began by
cutting off Bernt's genital -
3:24 - 3:26and eating it together,
-
3:26 - 3:28probably by candlelight.
-
3:28 - 3:30(Laughter)
-
3:30 - 3:33Obviously satisfied by this first course,
-
3:34 - 3:36they chose to proceed --
-
3:37 - 3:39and by the way this all on
video so you can watch it. -
3:39 - 3:41I recommend it to you, it's really nice --
-
3:42 - 3:44"Armine ate Bernt."
-
3:45 - 3:47But be aware that this is prohibited.
-
3:48 - 3:51It's crazy, considering
they haven't hurt anyone. -
3:51 - 3:54But it is indeed prohibited to be eaten.
-
3:55 - 3:57Well, even after my death
-
3:57 - 4:00I can't do whatever I want with my body.
-
4:00 - 4:04For instance, I am not allowed
to practice sea-immersion -
4:04 - 4:08whereas diving is allowed
while I am alive. -
4:09 - 4:11I am also not allowed to be embalmed,
-
4:11 - 4:16unless my name is Lenin, Mao,
or Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. -
4:16 - 4:19(Laughter)
-
4:19 - 4:22(Applause)
-
4:24 - 4:26And I am also not allowed --
-
4:26 - 4:27and this is even worse --
-
4:27 - 4:29to be cryogenized.
-
4:29 - 4:32You know, some people --
-
4:33 - 4:36have themselves frozen,
-
4:36 - 4:40hoping that in 10 years,
100 years, or a million years, -
4:40 - 4:42we would defrost them,
-
4:42 - 4:45as by then we will have already
found ways to resuscitate them, -
4:45 - 4:47or found cures to the illnesses
that have killed them. -
4:47 - 4:49This has been somewhat a success.
-
4:49 - 4:51In Russia and the United States,
-
4:51 - 4:54there are some cryogenic sites,
where one can see the coffins. -
4:54 - 4:57Some put their entire body,
while others only their head -- -
4:57 - 4:58it's cheaper.
-
4:59 - 5:01(laughter)
-
5:01 - 5:03And in France, a doctor named Martineau,
-
5:03 - 5:06felt that it was a great idea
to freeze his wife first. -
5:07 - 5:09(Laughter)
-
5:09 - 5:12And as it seemed to be going well,
-
5:12 - 5:15he decided to follow
her with the freezing. -
5:16 - 5:19Forever united in a frozen sleep,
-
5:21 - 5:23inside a castle.
-
5:23 - 5:27And then someone found out
and filed a complaint: -
5:27 - 5:30There are some people frozen in
the village, do you realize that? -
5:30 - 5:32(Laughter)
-
5:34 - 5:36Their son was delighted.
-
5:36 - 5:38He would go to see them from time to time.
-
5:38 - 5:40It's better than gathering around a grave.
-
5:40 - 5:44And the Council of State, that same one,
said: "This can't be happening. -
5:44 - 5:47You need to defrost and burn them!
-
5:47 - 5:49Put it all on fire.
-
5:49 - 5:51Then there was a trial,
-
5:51 - 5:54and Martineau's son
was forced to burn his parents. -
5:54 - 5:55Can you imagine, this poor couple
-
5:55 - 5:58who imagined being united
for millions of years -
5:58 - 6:01and resuscitate in a future
where sexuality is completely open, -
6:01 - 6:04completely vivified and rejuvenated.
-
6:04 - 6:07Well, unfortunately,
there is only a heap of ashes left. -
6:07 - 6:09(Laughter)
-
6:10 - 6:12So behind these tragedies --
-
6:12 - 6:13they don't concern us all
-
6:13 - 6:16if we don't wish to be eaten,
-
6:16 - 6:17frozen,
-
6:17 - 6:19or tossed --
-
6:19 - 6:22who cares.
-
6:23 - 6:26But the problem is that it actually
applies to each one of us. -
6:27 - 6:31It's the Civil Code via the bioethics law
of 1994 that says so. -
6:31 - 6:32The conventions --
-
6:32 - 6:34as you can read --
-
6:34 - 6:37are that there is no private ownership
or patrimoniality over the body, -
6:38 - 6:42because we say that the person
is unavailable under law. -
6:42 - 6:45And so the body itself isn't patrimonial.
-
6:45 - 6:47You don't have an ownership of your body.
-
6:48 - 6:52And so you might tell me: "So what,
everything in France is forbidden anyway." -
6:52 - 6:53(Laughter)
-
6:53 - 6:56But even in the US,
a country supposedly liberal, -
6:56 - 6:57it's the same story.
-
6:58 - 7:00It has, by the way, been
declared very clearly -
7:00 - 7:03at a trial in the Supreme
Court of California. -
7:04 - 7:05The John Moore case.
-
7:05 - 7:08John Moore was a patient
suffering from leukemia, -
7:08 - 7:10in the 80s,
-
7:10 - 7:12and the doctors had to remove his spleen.
-
7:13 - 7:17They discovered that his cells
had extraordinary properties -
7:17 - 7:19for producing certain kind of proteins.
-
7:19 - 7:22So the doctors extracted, without
telling John Moore, many of his cells. -
7:22 - 7:26They extracted blood, sperm,
and parts of the spinal cord. -
7:26 - 7:29They apparently told him
that in order to treat his leukemia -
7:29 - 7:32they had to remove some sperm --
that's apparently what happened. -
7:32 - 7:34(Laughter)
-
7:34 - 7:36And they made a cell line out of it.
-
7:36 - 7:38John Moore's cell line.
-
7:38 - 7:41Which they then sold for
hundreds of thousands of dollars -
7:41 - 7:44to big pharmaceutical institutions.
-
7:44 - 7:48And John Moore, upon
realizing what has happened, -
7:48 - 7:50said: "Wait a minute,
I don't get to have a say? -
7:50 - 7:53These are my cells, if you don't mind."
-
7:53 - 7:56And so there was a big trial,
-
7:56 - 8:00and the judge concluded that,
no, they aren't his cells in fact, -
8:00 - 8:03given that he doesn't have
ownership over his cells. -
8:04 - 8:05So,
-
8:05 - 8:07where does all of this come from?
-
8:08 - 8:12There are good reasons to think
that it came from a monotheistic heritage. -
8:12 - 8:14This idea --
-
8:14 - 8:16as Saint Paul put it:
"The body is for the Lord -
8:16 - 8:18and the Lord is for the body." --
-
8:18 - 8:19is that in the big monotheism,
-
8:19 - 8:22particularly within
Judeo-Christian religions, -
8:22 - 8:25my body doesn't belong to me
because it belongs to God. -
8:25 - 8:28My body is the expression of the soul,
as per Thomas d'Aquin. -
8:28 - 8:31The body is the reflection of my soul,
my soul is immortal. -
8:31 - 8:32It joins the kingdom of heaven.
-
8:32 - 8:34By the way,
-
8:36 - 8:37I can even be resuscitated
-
8:37 - 8:40if the Council of State
hasn't burned me first. -
8:40 - 8:41(Laughter)
-
8:43 - 8:45Pope Pie XII has
claimed it very explicitly -- -
8:45 - 8:49this is the first time
I'm quoting Pope Pie XII publicly. -
8:49 - 8:52In 1954, at a medical congress,
-
8:52 - 8:54he explained
-
8:54 - 8:58that Man is merely a usufructuary
of his body, -
8:58 - 9:00not its full owner.
-
9:02 - 9:05So within our secular law
system, a secularized system, -
9:05 - 9:07it is not a matter of God anymore,
-
9:07 - 9:12well the concept of God has been
replaced by the concept of dignity. -
9:12 - 9:14Going back to that trial
in Morsang-sur-Orge, -
9:14 - 9:18this is the reason why the Council
of State has prohibited dwarf-tossing, -
9:18 - 9:20because a human being's dignity
-
9:20 - 9:23is viewed as being part
of the public order. -
9:23 - 9:25It means that today,
-
9:25 - 9:28this transcendence we have abolished,
this divine transcendence, -
9:28 - 9:31is being retaken by the State,
or by society if you prefer, -
9:31 - 9:33defining everyone's dignity.
-
9:34 - 9:35So dignity is sacredness without God.
-
9:35 - 9:38It's the idea that, nonetheless,
the body is sacred. -
9:38 - 9:40We cannot do whatever we want with it.
-
9:40 - 9:44I suggest that you try and go
to the end of the modernity logic. -
9:45 - 9:49And if we are really,
completely within immanence, -
9:50 - 9:52to whom does the body
belong, if not to me? -
9:52 - 9:54Who can define its dignity, if not me?
-
9:54 - 9:57That's what John Lock did,
not John Moore, but John Locke. -
9:57 - 9:59Indeed, there are many Johns.
-
9:59 - 10:02He was the first person
to have written, to my knowledge, -
10:02 - 10:05that each person has ownership
over their own personhood. -
10:05 - 10:08It's not a coincidence that
he is the one who wrote that, -
10:08 - 10:12He was a doctor, and well-acquainted
with flesh, the body's reactions. -
10:12 - 10:16And also because he was in the midst
of the glorious British revolution, -
10:16 - 10:17the Bill of Rights Revolution.
-
10:18 - 10:20So this whole theory about
social contract rights, -
10:20 - 10:22about elementary, fundamental rights,
-
10:22 - 10:24about civil disobedience,
-
10:24 - 10:26also means that one has natural rights
that are predetermined -
10:26 - 10:29among which, the right
of ownership of oneself. -
10:29 - 10:32He went even further by saying: "If can
have ownership over exterior things, -
10:32 - 10:35if I can acquire the world
by working on it, -
10:35 - 10:37by adding value to it," --
-
10:37 - 10:41this idea of property was first
born out of the appropriation -
10:41 - 10:43of myself.
-
10:44 - 10:46And think about it, if we
have ownership over the body, -
10:46 - 10:50we have, according to classical
themes, the usus, fructus and abusus. -
10:50 - 10:51Usus means --
-
10:51 - 10:54it's always nice using Latin terms --
-
10:55 - 10:57usus means usage.
-
10:57 - 11:03So if I have usus over the body,
the dwarfs can do their work with dignity. -
11:03 - 11:05Then, fructus, we have it fructified
-
11:05 - 11:09and so John Moore can have
access to his cell money. -
11:09 - 11:12And then you have abusus, I can abuse it
and do whatever I want with it, -
11:12 - 11:16and if I want to have it cryogenized,
that's my problem. -
11:16 - 11:19It appears to me that this new generation
-
11:19 - 11:22is a generation that rejects
predetermined structures, -
11:22 - 11:25one that wants to define their own career,
-
11:25 - 11:28that wants to define
their life by traveling, -
11:28 - 11:30and to build themselves, their own self,
-
11:30 - 11:32be their own creator.
-
11:32 - 11:35And we can see, anecdotally,
sociologically, -
11:35 - 11:38to what extent this generation
who appropriates their own body -
11:38 - 11:40with tattoos for instance,
-
11:40 - 11:43It's also a way to define one's sexuality
in a much more fluid way. -
11:43 - 11:45There is a study that came out
which showed -
11:45 - 11:47that generation Z -
-
11:47 - 11:49it's not even Y anymore, it's Z --
-
11:49 - 11:50Generation Z is post-gender.
-
11:50 - 11:53It's not even bi anymore,
-
11:53 - 11:58everyone defines their own sexuality
-
11:58 - 12:00by adding a little bit of this or that.
-
12:00 - 12:02So this results in many things.
-
12:04 - 12:06For instance, one can be half-sexual,
-
12:07 - 12:09Grey-sexual,
-
12:09 - 12:11gyno-sexual,
-
12:11 - 12:13pan-sexual,
-
12:13 - 12:15Strauss-Kahn sexual -- No, not that.
-
12:15 - 12:17Anyway, there are many versions.
-
12:17 - 12:20I don't know all of them,
and can't describe them on stage. -
12:20 - 12:22But it's interesting,
you should look them up. -
12:22 - 12:25And more importantly,
it will allow us to tackle -
12:25 - 12:27the three big themes of the future:
-
12:28 - 12:32The subject of human augmentation,
the enhancement of oneself, -
12:33 - 12:35the theme of transhumanism,
-
12:35 - 12:37and the theme of data.
-
12:38 - 12:42If tomorrow I can,
and I already can enhance myself, -
12:42 - 12:45that's to say building
my own artificial arms, -
12:45 - 12:48enhancing my limbs, enhancing
my brain abilities, -
12:48 - 12:50even modifying my own DNA.
-
12:50 - 12:54If I modify my own DNA,
I must be its owner. -
12:56 - 12:59If tomorrow I want to test,
I want to explore immortality, -
13:00 - 13:02be it through cryogenisation --
-
13:02 - 13:04here is that nice example again.
-
13:04 - 13:08Or for instance, as Ray Kurzweil,
the Pope of transhumanism, envisions it, -
13:08 - 13:11by transferring my
consciousness onto a USB key. -
13:12 - 13:14Well, similarly, I am going to define,
-
13:14 - 13:16even contractually,
-
13:16 - 13:19the way in which my body
relates to the world. -
13:19 - 13:22And then there is a third question
that might seem a little marginal, -
13:22 - 13:25the question of data.
-
13:25 - 13:28We produce, a large amount of data,
-
13:28 - 13:29and its value is humongous.
-
13:29 - 13:34as in Europe, it's estimated be worth
a thousand billion euros by 2020. -
13:34 - 13:36However, this data,
which is worth so much money -
13:36 - 13:39and with which some companies
make so much money, -
13:39 - 13:42well, your personal data
doesn't belong to you. -
13:42 - 13:45In the same way there isn't
a patrimoniality of the body, -
13:45 - 13:47there isn't a patrimoniality of data.
-
13:47 - 13:48For the exact same reasons,
-
13:48 - 13:51because data is considered to be
an expression of your personality, -
13:52 - 13:54and as we saw, within the law,
-
13:54 - 13:58the personality is inalienable
and the body isn't patrimonial. -
13:58 - 14:00If tomorrow we find,
-
14:00 - 14:03that we are able to build
a private property for data, -
14:03 - 14:06which will be to the digital
age what intellectual property -
14:06 - 14:08was to the industrial revolution,
-
14:08 - 14:10you will then become an owner,
-
14:10 - 14:14in truly legal and financial terms,
of your own data, -
14:14 - 14:16which you will be able to negotiate.
-
14:16 - 14:20In other words: you will finally
get paid for using Facebook. -
14:22 - 14:26So, "my body belongs to me"
isn't a platitude. -
14:27 - 14:32It's a tattoo we would finally all wear.
-
14:33 - 14:35Because this brand new generation
-
14:35 - 14:38will have to confront all these problems.
-
14:38 - 14:40Transhumanism is coming,
-
14:40 - 14:42bioethical committees
are already outdated. -
14:42 - 14:47And in order for everyone
to able to choose their own values, -
14:47 - 14:49in this complex universe,
-
14:49 - 14:52we must first own our own bodies.
-
14:52 - 14:53Thank you!
- Title:
- Self ownership, the fight of the new generation? | Gaspard Koenig | TEDxParis
- Description:
-
We are tempted to think, that our bodies belong to us and that we can own them at our discretion.
However, through many examples, often hilarious; Gaspard Koenig, proves the opposite, and asks the question: isn't it time to reclaim the ownership of our bodies?This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx
- Video Language:
- French
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 14:58