Bioengineering of Body Parts (Individual Project)

The pursuit of knowledge is as old as humankind itself. Our innate curiosity is reflected in myriad scientific advances: higher standards of living, longer life spans, eradication of diseases, exploration of the universe, and more. Over the years, scientists have considered the possibilities of growing human organs instead of growing human cells in laboratories. And with technology on hand, they slowly made everything possible. Engineering met medicine and to this date, everyone recognizes it as Bioengineering – a blossoming field at the crossroads of so many disciplines – biology, ecology, chemistry, physics, medicine, and engineering – exposes itself to unprecedented moral challenges by making use of so many techniques, including genetic engineering, clinical research, and animal experimentation.

No other field encompasses so many potential pitfalls. It is for this reason that biological engineering needs its own unique code of ethics – it cannot simply derive its ethics from a parent field, because the moral questions posed to bioengineers are not a subset of any other group (Russ, 2009).

But digging in to the purpose of Bioengineering, how can it affect our society? What body parts have been included in the list? And what are its advantages and disadvantages?

Thousands of people die every day because of the terminal malfunction of a vital organ. Although most peoples’ lives can be prolonged through surgery such as organ transplantation, the simple fact is that there aren’t enough spare body parts to go around. And that is where bioengineering becomes handy, with it on our reach, society can actually maintain equilibrium. Moreover, the introduction of Bioengineering to the society can affect everything in two ways, one is that people may depend on bioengineering itself and lose themselves while clinging to the fact that an organ can be replaced by another, and another is that people might be responsible or may start being responsible because who would want to have an organ that is literally not yours in the first place, right?

What body parts have been included in the list?

First, the skin. Producing small amounts of artificial skin to graft onto patients and use for toxicity testing has been possible for years. Human skin cells are cultivated in the lab and then embedded in a collagen scaffold (Danigelis, 2013).

Second, the ear. Reproducing 3D biological structures, particularly the complex human ear, presents significant challenges for bioengineers. The ear that debuted in May 2013 is not a simple replacement — it can pick up radio frequencies well beyond the range that human ears normally detect.

Next are the blood vessels and the heart. Being able to make blood vessels in the lab from a patient’s own cells could mean better treatments for cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and diabetes. In 2011, the head of California-based Cytograft Tissue Engineering reported progress in a study where three end-stage kidney disease patients were implanted with blood vessels bioengineered in the lab. After eight months the grafts continued to work well, easing access to dialysis. Artificial heart devices have been surgically implanted since the 1980s, but no device has been able to replace the human heart as effectively as a healthy biological one. After all, a human heart pumps 35 million times in a single year. Recently scientists have made advances in adding more biological material to artificial heart devices (Danigelis, 2013).

Haven’t you ever wondered how your life would change if you had a life-threatening disease? Millions of people around the world each year are diagnosed with serious illnesses that usually lead to the loss of a major organ. Unfortunately, there are not enough donors available for every single patient. The human body's structure is very intricate, and because of this organ transplanting also becomes very difficult. These substitute organs can be made out of metal, plastic, string, or any other material that allows for the part to function. The impact of these bioengineering parts could be enormous as it could save the majority of the people who die for these types of diseases.

Until the late 1980s, few scientists believed it would be possible to make human organs because it was a struggle to grow human cells in the laboratory. The task became easier once scientists figured out the chemicals—known as growth factors—that the body itself uses to promote cellular growth (Naik, 2013).

The field of regenerative medicine holds the promise of solving these problems through the repair or replacement of organs or tissues, ideally, by using a patient’s own cells. Regenerative techniques include stem cell therapies, in which cells are injected into an organ or tissue to help it repair itself, and transplantation of organs or tissues grown in a laboratory. An organ grown from a patient’s own cells is less likely to be rejected because the immune system will recognize the tissue and not attack it.

I think that applying engineering techniques to the human body is a fascinating, absorbing and rewarding endeavor with many potential benefits for health care. Arguably, all engineering disciplines seek to further our quality of life, however, what interests me in bioengineering is that it can directly affect and improve our health and well-being. It’s up to us to believe in it or consider it as a one big fallacy of human nature.

References:
Danigelis, Alyssa, 2013. 10 Bioengineered Body Parts That Could Change Medicine. Discovery News. http://mashable.com/2013/07/23/bioengineered-body-parts/ March 1, 2014

Naik, Gautam, 2013. Science Fiction Comes Alive as Researchers Grow Organs in Lab. News. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323699704578328251335196648 March 1, 2014

Russ, Zachary, 2009. Mapping the moral boundaries of biological engineering. Open Access Article. http://www.jbioleng.org/content/3/1/7 March 1, 2014