Modern surgical procedures, particularly those involved in transplanting or replacing body parts, have redefinited the way poeple conceive the physical bodies of themselves and others. According to Linda F. Hogle,
For centuries bodies and their parts have been used for knowledge production (anatomy labs), for symbolic purposes (as in the display of Lenin's remains), and for commercial purposes (in pharmaceuticals, sales of relics, and a plethora of other products). In each case, body materials come to be seen as existing in another state; another category from the whole person. ["Tales from the Cryptic: Technology Meets Organism in the Living Cadaver," Cyborg Handbook, 203]
Hogle argues that matters change fundamentally with the situation of the "donor-cyborg" whose very existence forces a range of patients an medical profesisonals to think differently about dead bodies. These include research scientists, "practicing physicians who must balance needs and resources, health economists seeking alternatives to long-term care, family members of the dead who need to find a purpose in the loss, and health professionals who must attend to this patient who now requires a different sort of care" [203].
