Blackwell Reference Online

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In Tom Stoppard's (1967) play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead the two central characters lament the precariousness of their lives. Rosencrantz seeks solace in life's only certainty when he comments that “the only beginning is birth and the only end is death – if we can't count on that what can we count on.” To this he might have added that he could reliably count on the fact that he had a body. The “fact” that we are born, have a body, and then die is of course something that does seem to be beyond question. It is something that we can hold on to, as we live in a world that appears to be ever more uncertain and risky ( Giddens 1991 ; Beck 1992 ). But is this fact so obvious? Ironically, the more sophisticated our medical, technological, and scientific knowledge of bodies becomes the more uncertain we are as to what the body actually is. For example, technological developments have meant that boundaries between the physical (or natural) and social body have become less clear. With the development of assisted conception, when does birth begin? With the development of life extending technologies, when does the life of a physical body end? With the development of prosthetic technologies, what constitutes a “pure” human? It seems the old certainties around birth, life, bodies, and death are becoming increasingly complex. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that attempts ... log in or subscribe to read full text