Scientists Seek To Cultivate 'Spare' Human Bodies For Medical Miracles

Medical research is facing a severe shortage of human bodies and organs. In a new MIT Technology Review article, Stanford scientists propose a solution to bypass this "major bottleneck" ethically, avoiding the exploitation of living beings. The idea, however, is expected to be controversial.

According to the published article, These could revolutionize medical research and drug development, greatly reducing the need for animal testing, rescuing many people from organ transplant lists, and allowing us to produce more effective drugs and treatments. All without crossing most people's ethical lines.

Although it may seem like science fiction, recent technological progress has pushed this concept into the realm of plausibility. Pluripotent stem cells, one of the earliest cell types to form during development, can give rise to every type of cell in the adult body. Recently, researchers have used these stem cells to create structures that seem to mimic the early development of actual human embryos. At the same time, artificial uterus technology is rapidly advancing, and other pathways may be opening to allow for the development of fetuses outside of the body. 

Such technologies, together with established genetic techniques to inhibit brain development, make it possible to envision the creation of "bodyoids"-a potentially unlimited source of human bodies, developed entirely outside of a human body from stem cells, that lack sentience or the ability to feel pain.

Talking about the beneift of this new invention the scientists suggest that Bodyoids could address many ethical problems in modern medicine, offering ways to avoid unnecessary pain and suffering. For example, they could offer an ethical alternative to the way we currently use nonhuman animals for research and food, providing meat or other products with no animal suffering or awareness. 

But when we come to human bodyoids, the issues become harder. Many will find the concept grotesque or appalling. And for good reason. We have an innate respect for human life in all its forms. We do not allow broad research on people who no longer have consciousness or, in some cases, never had it.