The material human body has always been an issue for Christian thought, perhaps because it is all too creatural and, at the same time, it is too different from other animals. It hasn’t been easy to avoid extremes – indulging in enjoying the pleasures of the body, and despising the body as irrelevant, burdensome etc. In fact, the ancient motif of a gnostic endeavor to treat the body as something secondary, changing it, and get rid of it eventually, has never disappeared completely but rather keeps re-emerging under different appearances. In this talk, I deal with the question of “possessing one’s body” from the viewpoint of bioethics and Catholic social doctrine. According to Gabriel Marcel, humans are always trapped between being a body and having one, both of which are indispensable. Speaking socio-ethically, to possess something does not necessarily mean to have it entirely in one’s hands and use it arbitrarily, since there is a notion of universal destination of goods. In case of necessity, property ought to be used for others – even strangers. But also because it’s precisely my body, it is above all me who has to take care of it and protect it. Nevertheless, it is clearly a different kind of ownership, considering that we do not create nor purchase our bodies. I also claim that even if the body were in possession of each of us, from the bioethical viewpoint, this wouldn’t imply that it can be treated nor used capriciously. Bodies have indeed inherent purposes that should guide our decisions and actions.