TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Gaspard Koenig: Do we really own our bodies?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I'd like to start by showing you someone who is desrsed even wsroe than I am. [Who is this?] You may notice, aside from the color harmony, a tattoo saying: "My body belongs to me." But who is this person? Is it a punk, who beroword clothes from their grandmother's wardrobe? Is it a teenager, from the 16th arrondissement of Paris, who feels like rebelling? No. This is our Minister of htaleh, Marisol Touraine, standing on the steps of the élyése. And this was last year, to celebrate the 40th year of the Veil artoiobn Act, which enables women to take control of their bodies, through a vrolatuny interruption of their pregnancy. "My body belongs to me" has become banal — everyone says it. By the way, for once, the erinte National Assembly has voted in foavr of a symbolic law in order to reapprove the Veil Law. It's a baltniay, even ministers have it tattooed on their arm. However, it's not entirely true. I would like to give you a few emaxpels, that are a little emetxre, honestly even shocking, which will demonstrate that for many people and in a lot of cases, well, my body doesn't belong to me. Firstly, it doesn't belong to me as long as I'm alive. I am not allowed to rent my belly. I am not allowed in many countries to sell my sexuality. I am not allowed to diefne the gender that I belong to, since I have to face a doctor or be in fnort of a jugde, and declare to the civil registrar whether I am a man, woman, or other. I am also not allowed to do whatever I want with my body. For inancste, I can't do this. [Dwarf-tossing] So, You might recognize Leonardo Di Caprio, in this great dwarf-tossing scene. But some vrnsoeis of it exist that are a little less chic, notably the one that was practiced by the great community of Morsang-sur-Orge from l'Essonne, in the beginning of the 90s. The mayor of Morsang-sur-Orge said: "This can't go on — we can't toss dwarfs." And so he prohibited dwarf-tossing. And who was to protest? Dwarf-tossers found other activities to do on Sundays. They probably went back to fishing. It's the dwarves themselves who protested, because they had a breadwinner, and a certain renown, apparently a certain success with women. And the Morsang-sur-Orges Council of State's dsciieon, which jurists know well, said: "No, this is fdobeidrn." I also cannot do whatever I want with my body in order to die. I am not allowed to be euthanized, but I am also not allowed to be eaten. In 2001, a charming German eneeignr posted an announcement saying: "I am looking for a volunteer to eat." He received several candidates, made a selection, conducted a few fanil interviews, and in the end finally found Bernt, who agreed wholeheartedly. So they began by cutting off Bernt's gaetinl and eating it together, probably by celndhaiglt. (Laughter) Obviously satisfied by this first course, they chose to proceed — and by the way this all on viedo so you can wacth it. I rcmneoemd it to you, it's really nice — "Armine ate Bernt." But be arawe that this is prohibited. It's crazy, considering they haven't hurt anyone. But it is indeed prohibited to be eaten. Well, even after my death I can't do whatever I want with my body. For instance, I am not allowed to practice sea-immersion whereas diving is allowed while I am alive. I am also not allowed to be embalmed, unless my name is Lenin, Mao, or véarly Giscard d'Estaing. (Laughter) (appusale) And I am also not allowed — and this is even worse — to be cryogenized. You know, some people — have themselves frozen, hoping that in 10 years, 100 years, or a million years, we would defrost them, as by then we will have already found ways to rausetcsite them, or found cures to the illnesses that have kileld them. This has been somewhat a success. In Russia and the United States, there are some cryogenic sites, where one can see the coffnis. Some put their entire body, while others only their head — it's cheaper. (laughter) And in France, a doctor named Martineau, felt that it was a great idea to freeze his wife first. (lagetuhr) And as it seemed to be going well, he decided to follow her with the freezing. Forever ueintd in a frozen sleep, inside a castle. And then someone found out and filed a complaint: There are some people frozen in the village, do you rizelae that? (Laughter) Their son was delighted. He would go to see them from time to time. It's better than gathering around a grave. And the cuocinl of State, that same one, said: "This can't be happening. You need to defrost and burn them! Put it all on fire. Then there was a trail, and Martineau's son was forced to burn his parents. Can you imniage, this poor couple who imagined being united for millions of years and resuscitate in a ftuure where stliuxeay is completely open, completely viievfid and rejuvenated. Well, unfortunately, there is only a heap of ashes left. (Laughter) So behind these tragedies — they don't concern us all if we don't wish to be eaten, frozen, or tossed — who cares. But the problem is that it actually applies to each one of us. It's the Civil Code via the bhceiitos law of 1994 that says so. The conventions — as you can read — are that there is no private ownership or patrimoniality over the body, because we say that the person is unavailable under law. And so the body itself isn't prmiontaial. You don't have an ownership of your body. And so you might tell me: "So what, everything in France is forbidden anyway." (Laughter) But even in the US, a cuontry supposedly liberal, it's the same story. It has, by the way, been declared very clearly at a trial in the Supreme Court of California. The John Moore case. John Moore was a patient suffering from leukemia, in the 80s, and the doctors had to rmvoee his spleen. They discovered that his cells had extraordinary properties for producing certain kind of proteins. So the doctors ereatxtcd, without telling John Moore, many of his clels. They extracted boold, sperm, and prats of the spinal cord. They apparently told him that in order to treat his lieeukma they had to remove some sperm — that's aarppnetly what happened. (Laughter) And they made a cell line out of it. John Moore's cell line. Which they then sold for hddnures of thousands of dollars to big pharmaceutical institutions. And John mrooe, upon realizing what has happened, said: "Wait a minute, I don't get to have a say? These are my cells, if you don't mind." And so there was a big trial, and the judge concluded that, no, they aren't his cells in fact, given that he doesn't have ownership over his cells. So, where does all of this come from? There are good reasons to think that it came from a monotheistic heritage. This idea — as Saint Paul put it: "The body is for the Lord and the Lord is for the body." — is that in the big monotheism, particularly within Judeo-Christian religions, my body doesn't belong to me because it belongs to God. My body is the expression of the soul, as per Thomas d'Aquin. The body is the reflection of my soul, my soul is itramoml. It joins the kingdom of heaven. By the way, I can even be resuscitated if the Council of State hasn't burned me first. (Laughter) Pope Pie XII has claimed it very explicitly — this is the first time I'm quoting Pope Pie XII publicly. In 1954, at a medical crsegnos, he explained that Man is merely a usufructuary of his body, not its full owner. So within our salcuer law sesytm, a secularized system, it is not a matter of God anymore, well the concept of God has been replaced by the cnpeoct of dignity. Going back to that trial in Morsang-sur-Orge, this is the reason why the Council of sttae has prohibited dwarf-tossing, because a human being's dignity is viewed as being part of the plubic oedrr. It means that today, this transcendence we have abolished, this divine transcendence, is being retaken by the State, or by society if you pfeerr, defining everyone's dignity. So dintigy is sacredness without God. It's the idea that, nonetheless, the body is sacred. We cannot do whatever we want with it. I suggest that you try and go to the end of the modernity liogc. And if we are really, completely within imaemcnne, to whom does the body belong, if not to me? Who can define its dignity, if not me? That's what John Lock did, not John Moore, but John Locke. Indeed, there are many jonhs. He was the first person to have written, to my knowledge, that each person has ownership over their own personhood. It's not a coincidence that he is the one who wrote that, He was a dctoor, and well-acquainted with flesh, the body's reactions. And also because he was in the mdist of the glorious British revolution, the Bill of Rights Revolution. So this whole theory about social catrcont rights, about elementary, fundamental rights, about civil disbnoiedcee, also means that one has natural rights that are predetermined among which, the right of ownership of oneself. He went even further by saying: "If can have ownership over exterior things, if I can acquire the world by working on it, by adding value to it," — this idea of property was first born out of the aiatrpripoopn of myself. And think about it, if we have ownership over the body, we have, according to classical tehems, the usus, fructus and abusus. Usus means — it's always nice using Latin trems — usus mneas usage. So if I have usus over the body, the dwarfs can do their work with dignity. Then, fructus, we have it ffictrueid and so John Moore can have access to his cell money. And then you have auubss, I can abuse it and do whatever I want with it, and if I want to have it cryogenized, that's my problem. It appears to me that this new generation is a gtaironeen that rejects predetermined srurtuctes, one that wants to define their own ceearr, that wants to define their life by traveling, and to build themselves, their own self, be their own creator. And we can see, acoltelnday, sociologically, to what extent this generation who aeptorrpipas their own body with tattoos for instance, It's also a way to define one's sexuality in a much more fluid way. There is a sutdy that came out which showed that generation Z - it's not even Y anymore, it's Z — Generation Z is post-gender. It's not even bi anymore, everyone defines their own sexuality by adding a little bit of this or that. So this results in many things. For instance, one can be half-sexual, Grey-sexual, gyno-sexual, pan-sexual, Strauss-Kahn seauxl — No, not that. Anyway, there are many versions. I don't know all of them, and can't dcrbseie them on stage. But it's interesting, you should look them up. And more importantly, it will allow us to tackle the three big themes of the future: The subject of human aanittmeougn, the enhancement of oneself, the theme of transhumanism, and the thmee of data. If tomorrow I can, and I already can enhance myself, that's to say building my own artificial arms, enhancing my limbs, ehcnnaing my brain aiieiltbs, even modifying my own DNA. If I modify my own DNA, I must be its owner. If tomorrow I want to test, I want to exolpre immortality, be it through cryogenisation — here is that nice example again. Or for instance, as Ray kizuerwl, the Pope of transhumanism, eivinsons it, by transferring my csnneouscosis onto a USB key. Well, similarly, I am going to define, even contractually, the way in which my body relates to the world. And then there is a third question that might seem a little marginal, the qeusiotn of data. We produce, a large amount of data, and its value is humongous. as in Europe, it's estimated be worth a thousand billion euros by 2020. However, this data, which is worth so much money and with which some companies make so much money, well, your personal data doesn't blneog to you. In the same way there isn't a patrimoniality of the body, there isn't a patrimoniality of data. For the exact same raesons, because data is considered to be an expression of your personality, and as we saw, within the law, the pnsaioletry is inalienable and the body isn't patrimonial. If tomorrow we find, that we are able to build a private property for data, which will be to the digital age what intellectual property was to the industrial revolution, you will then become an oenwr, in truly legal and financial terms, of your own data, which you will be able to negotiate. In other words: you will finally get paid for using Facebook. So, "my body belongs to me" isn't a platitude. It's a tottao we would finally all wear. Because this brand new generation will have to confront all these problems. Transhumanism is coming, bioethical ctmeemiots are already ottueadd. And in order for everyone to able to choose their own vauels, in this complex universe, we must first own our own bodies. Thank you!

Open Cloze

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

Solution

outdated
patrimonial
logic
personality
prefer
front
élysée
entire
vivified
sexuality
themes
envisions
trial
candlelight
engineer
aware
belong
sexual
values
voluntary
state
reasons
final
midst
resuscitate
consciousness
structures
public
define
extreme
appropriation
cells
favor
moore
blood
committees
realize
bioethics
parts
contract
immortal
appropriates
decision
coffins
valéry
anecdotally
johns
remove
apparently
abusus
dressed
terms
disobedience
career
fructified
forbidden
council
augmentation
generation
enhancing
video
instance
doctor
kurzweil
imagine
judge
country
applause
owner
secular
genital
immanence
extracted
borrowed
united
health
future
study
theme
describe
order
worse
congress
abortion
recommend
versions
tattoo
examples
concept
watch
leukemia
abilities
banality
killed
system
question
laughter
means
explore
hundreds
dignity

Original Text

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

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
body belongs	3
john moore	3
cell line	2
pope pie	2
pie xii	2
usus means	2

ngrams of length 3

collocation	frequency
pope pie xii	2

Important Words

abilities
abolished
abortion
abuse
abusus
access
acquire
act
activities
adding
age
agreed
alive
allowed
amount
anecdotally
announcement
anymore
apparently
appears
applause
applies
appropriates
appropriation
arm
arms
arrondissement
artificial
ashes
assembly
ate
augmentation
aware
banal
banality
began
beginning
belly
belong
belongs
bernt
bi
big
bill
billion
bioethical
bioethics
bit
blood
bodies
body
born
borrowed
brain
brand
breadwinner
british
build
building
burn
burned
california
candidates
candlelight
caprio
career
cares
case
cases
castle
celebrate
cell
cells
charming
cheaper
chic
choose
chose
civil
claimed
classical
clothes
code
coffins
coincidence
color
coming
committees
community
companies
completely
complex
concept
concern
concluded
conducted
confront
congress
consciousness
considered
contract
contractually
control
conventions
cord
council
countries
country
couple
court
crazy
creator
cryogenic
cryogenisation
cryogenized
cures
cutting
data
death
decided
decision
declare
declared
define
defines
defining
defrost
delighted
demonstrate
describe
di
die
digital
dignity
discovered
disobedience
divine
diving
dna
doctor
doctors
dollars
dressed
dwarfs
dwarves
eat
eaten
eating
elementary
embalmed
enables
engineer
enhance
enhancement
enhancing
entire
envisions
estimated
europe
euros
euthanized
exact
examples
exist
explained
explicitly
explore
expression
extent
exterior
extracted
extraordinary
extreme
face
facebook
fact
favor
feels
felt
filed
final
finally
financial
find
fire
firstly
fishing
flesh
fluid
follow
forbidden
forced
france
freeze
freezing
front
frozen
fructified
fructus
full
fundamental
future
gathering
gender
generation
genital
german
giscard
give
glorious
god
good
grave
great
happened
happening
harmony
head
health
heap
heaven
heritage
honestly
hoping
human
humongous
hundreds
hurt
idea
illnesses
imagine
imagined
immanence
immortal
immortality
importantly
inalienable
industrial
instance
institutions
intellectual
interesting
interruption
interviews
john
johns
joins
judge
jurists
key
killed
kind
kingdom
knowledge
kurzweil
large
latin
laughter
law
left
legal
lenin
leonardo
leukemia
liberal
life
limbs
line
lock
locke
logic
long
lord
lot
man
mao
marginal
marisol
martineau
matter
mayor
means
medical
midst
million
millions
mind
minister
ministers
minute
modernity
modify
modifying
money
monotheism
monotheistic
moore
named
national
natural
negotiate
nice
notably
notice
oneself
open
order
outdated
owner
ownership
paid
parents
paris
part
parts
patient
patrimonial
patrimoniality
paul
people
person
personal
personality
personhood
pharmaceutical
pie
platitude
poor
pope
posted
practice
practiced
predetermined
prefer
pregnancy
private
problem
problems
proceed
produce
producing
prohibited
properties
property
proteins
protest
protested
public
publicly
punk
put
question
quoting
ray
reactions
read
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realizing
reapprove
reason
reasons
rebelling
received
recognize
recommend
reflection
registrar
rejects
rejuvenated
relates
religions
remove
renown
rent
replaced
results
resuscitate
resuscitated
retaken
revolution
rights
russia
sacred
sacredness
saint
satisfied
scene
secular
secularized
selection
sell
sexual
sexuality
shocking
showed
showing
similarly
sites
sleep
social
society
sociologically
sold
son
soul
sperm
spinal
spleen
stage
standing
start
state
states
steps
story
structures
study
subject
success
suffering
suggest
sundays
supposedly
supreme
symbolic
system
tackle
tattoo
tattooed
tattoos
teenager
telling
terms
test
theme
themes
theory
thomas
thousand
thousands
time
today
told
tomorrow
toss
tossed
touraine
tragedies
transcendence
transferring
transhumanism
traveling
treat
trial
true
unavailable
united
universe
usage
usb
usufructuary
usus
values
valéry
veil
versions
video
viewed
village
vivified
voluntary
volunteer
voted
wardrobe
watch
ways
wear
wholeheartedly
wife
woman
women
work
working
world
worse
worth
written
wrote
xii
year
years
élysée