What is the current state of the law on ownership of living human bodies?

This principle was not only applied to living human bodies. The court discussed the case law surrounding ownership of corpses which was also specifically forbidden, with a limited exception: at paras. 31-34. The exception, founded in the Australian case of Doodeward v. Spence (1908), 6 C.L.R. 406 at 414 (H.C.A.), allowed for ownership where: a person has by the lawful exercise of work or skill so dealt with a human body or part of a human body in his lawful possession that it has acquired some attributes differentiating it from a mere corpse awaiting burial …