New technology could replace animal testing
Researchers from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute are developing ‘bio-chips’ that replicate the functioning of organs in the human body.
Last week Bioedge examined the ethical implications of digitizing the human mind. This week we’ll examine the ethical advantages of replicating the human organs.
Researchers from Harvard University’s Wyss Institute are developing ‘bio-chips’ that replicate the functioning of organs in the human body. The researchers claim that these chips, structurally very similar to organs like the lungs and the heart, can accurately replicate the way our body would react to drugs and other environmental changes. If the project succeeds we may be able to circumvent the ethical difficulties encountered in animal testing and clinical trials.
Human organs reproduced on biochips could end to animal testing
Xavier Symons
https://www.bioedge.org/images/2008images/Ingberthumb.jpg
Creative commons
animal testing
animal welfare
bioengineering
- Can machines be moral? - March 7, 2021
- Can we synthesise Christianity moral theology with secular bioethics? - November 28, 2020
- Euthanasia polling data may fail to capture people’s considered views - August 15, 2020
More Stories
A painful debate: shrinking the carbon footprint of anaesthetics
If there is any profession which seems remote from the Sturm und Drang of climate change, it must be anaesthetists....
Some patients recall death experiences after heart attacks
In an article in the journal Resuscitation, some survivors of cardiac arrest have described lucid death experiences that occurred while...
Queensland widower dies after taking assisted suicide drugs ordered by his wife
“Move along, please. Nothing to see here.” This was more or less the reaction of supporters of “voluntary assisted dying”...
Australian first: nurse donates organs after euthanasia
A Victorian woman has become the first Australian to combine death by euthanasia with organ donation. Ballarat nurse Marlene Bevern,...
Canadian study hints at crushing institutional conscience objections to ‘assisted dying’
Supporters of “voluntary assisted dying” fought hard to achieve legalisation in various jurisdictions around the world. After legalisation, however, battles...
Hope, hype and xenotransplantation
On January 7, 2022 David Bennett, a 57-year-old with terminal heart disease, made history as the first person to receive...