Neoliberal logic treats even selling one’s own organs as protected self-determination

Evidence

Should we bar people from improving a very bad economic lot because it requires a deprivation of their personhood? Justice may not be “served by a ban on desperate exchanges” as, for example, selling human organs … An immediate reaction might well be to let each individual decide what is essential to his or her self-constitution and act accordingly … To put the matter another way, who is to decide what is essential to the constitution of the self other than the self ? — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 416

Categorization

• DEFINE: A sharp statement of the market-liberty doctrine that equates self-determination with the right to alienate one’s own body.
• XREF: connects to: Selling citizenship rights follows logically from core neoliberal premises yet was mostly rejected — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1874; Neoliberalism’s ultimate ideal self is the autonomous self-made individual — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 430; Neoliberalism denies any harmable self, dissolving all positive freedom — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 308 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s ultimate ideal self is the autonomous self-made individual #expands (0.85) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 430
• Neoliberal ‘freedom’ is internally redefined to mean market autonomy, not political liberty #expands (0.82) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 166
• Neoliberalism denies any harmable self, dissolving all positive freedom #expands (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 308
• The neoliberal subject must constantly self-invest across all life domains #expands (0.78) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 360
• Neoliberalism swallows humanity through its form of valuation itself #exemplifies (0.75) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 75