We’re all afraid of a time when we might lose the capacity to decide what medical treatments to accept or refuse. This is why Australian governments have promoted advance care planning, which involves discussing and expressing preferences about the kind of medical care you would or would not want in a situation where you lack mental capacity to make decisions.
When you’re clipping your nails or having a haircut, do you think about who owns those samples of your genetic material? Perhaps you think it doesn’t really matter, or that because it comes from your body, you own it.
In fact, legally, the answer is far more complex.