9

The question of the limits of the realm of the market is now central in the social sciences. The article questions the moral basis for the refusal of the commodification of certain objects. It starts from the study of a type of object (in the physical sense of the term) whose commodification is today largely rejected – the kidney – in order to identify the moral grounds for this rejection. It then develops a parallel between this “moral economy” and the earlier one, that had opposed the rise of the market economy in the era of the industrial revolution, highlighting the similarities.