A heart without life: Artificial organs and the lived body

Mary Jean Walker (Monash University)

Abstract Artificial devices that functionally replace or support internal organs are becoming increasingly feasible as a result of technological advance. This paper examines how artificial organs, and accompanying alterations to embodiment, could affect how we experience and think about bodies and body parts, and what ethical implications this could have. Drawing on phenomenology of the body, I focus on artificial hearts and ventricular assist devices and show that these technologies seem to both confirm and undermine a separation of the self and the body. An implication is that even if artificial organs  are developed that are as experientially transparent as are biological organs, we should anticipate that they will alter experience as well as impacting on how body parts are valued.