Laboratory Grows Real Human Organs to Implant in Living People
A small lab in North Carolina has claimed to possess the ability to grow real usable human organs and implant them into a living person, according to CBS news.
The lab is located in Winston Salem N.C. and has been growing replacement organs and body parts from human cells.
“We take a very small piece of tissue from the specific injured or deceased organ less than half the size of a postage stamp. We then take those cells, grow those cells outside the body,” said Dr. Anthony Atala who works in the lab to CBS.
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The method of restoring the human body seems like something out of a science fiction movie. But it’s very real and according to Luke Masalla whose bladder came from this lab, it has proved very effective.
“I was in kidney failure and my bladder was sending fluid back up into my kidneys and damaging them,” said Masalla to CBS.
By soaking a bio degradable mold and seeding it with nutrients combined with the stem cells from Luke’s own bladder and allowing it to incubate in a bio-reactor, Luke was able to receive a brand new working organ.
Using living cells to create body parts is considered unethical in some Evangelical Christian circles.
Stem cell research, embryonic in particular, is considered to be the destruction of a human body in the name of science, a practice which Christians deem unacceptable.
Organizations such as the Research Ethics Coalition are not sold on the pros of using embryonic stem cells.
“There are no cures,” it said in a statement speaking out against a government bill that would fund this controversial practice. “You are sacrificing embryos on purely speculative research.”
And although the use of adult stem cells is accepted in some right-wing circles, critics of the practice feel that it will eventually lead to the widespread acceptance of all stem cell research.
The lab is located in the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in North Carolina. Labs such as this one specialize in taking stem cells and multiplying and growing them.
Other labs make the biodegradable molds that the cells are implanted in and after spending time in the lab’s bio-reactor the organs are ready for human use.
“At the institute we are growing over 20 different types of tissues and organs now some of these we’ve already put into patients,” said Atala.
The tissues being grown include arteries, ears, fingers and bones.
