5 ms·
Should not we already get artificial organs out of the door? To do so, first we should revisit all that stem cell debate. It's kind of hard to argue that stem
by guard-of-terra 11y ago
Should not we already get artificial organs out of the door?
To do so, first we should revisit all that stem cell debate.
It's kind of hard to argue that stem cells are more sacred than organs harvested from still breathing body.
- nsxwolf 11y agoThe successes in engineered organs are coming from adult stem cells so far, which don't come with an ethical debate. We can't get there fast enough if this ghoulishness is really what doctors are proposing.
- guard-of-terra 11y ago"which don't come with an ethical debate" I would not be so sure. I don't think that laymen understand the difference between evil baby-harvested stem cells and my rightfully own adult stem cells, and that hurts research & funding.
- pbh101 11y agoHaving been around a lot of people who care about this issue growing up, I can tell you there is a lot of loud trumpeting of every advance in adult stem cell research, specifically for this reason. I'm sure there are still some out there who have ethical concerns about adult stem cells, but that is a separate issue. One example from a quick google search: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/adult-stem-cell-therapies-are-the-future-scientist-says1 http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/adult-stem-cell-therapi...
- agumonkey 11y agoThere were impressive results (quite a huge step) with ECM scaffolds producing tiny hearts, kidneys and such. More and more we're able to handle things at the sub-molecular level, so it's probable that soon we'll have spare organs. It will be a milestone, not having to wait for someone to die to get a functioning heart or liver. Maybe no more immuno-suppressant therapies for transplantations. Questioning ourselves too.