Is your body yours? This may seem a strange question to ask, eliciting the immediate response, ‘of course it is; who else’s could it be?’ Although there has been much debate among lawyers and philosophers about whether bodies are property, and whether people can be said to own their bodies, there is a widespread assumption that your body is yours. It is that assumption which we wish to challenge in this article. For lawyers, the exact relationship people have with their bodies has raised a host of complex questions. Generally, commentators have divided into one of three camps. There are those who argue that bodies should be regarded as property, capable of being owned and transferred; those who reject the property approach and instead argue that rights such as ‘rights to bodily integrity’, ‘rights to privacy’ or ‘rights to autonomy’ should be used to protect the body’s special status and a third group who believe that there is something to be said for both views, and the ideal solution lies in finding the appropriate mix of both the property and integrity/privacy approaches. The significance of this dispute can be seen in the context of various legal issues: if a fan cuts off a piece of his favourite actor’s hair, should this be regarded as theft, or an offence against the person, or both? When considering