General Question

ragingloli's avatar

Since humans already have the biological machinery to grow complete humans from scratch in 9 months, why not utilise this capacity in its downtime to commercially grow single body parts?

Asked by ragingloli (52231points) August 8th, 2019

Implant some modified egg cells that grow to a leg, a heart, a liver, what have you.
You could even grow several simultaneously.
Considering how valuable organs are on the black market, surely this would be a welcome source of income.

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7 Answers

Patty_Melt's avatar

I believe they are already working on specific parts manufacture without needing a womb.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

BBC – August 27, 2004 – New jaw grown on patient’s back – “University of Kiel researchers “grew” a replacement jaw-bone in a muscle in the patient’s back and grafted it in place.”

LadyMarissa's avatar

They are doing that already. the needed body part is implanted under the skin of the person needing it so it grows & generally becomes more compatible with the patient. With head injuries, they remove a section of the skull to relieve the pressure & then implant the skull section in the patient’s body in order to keep it viable until they can replace the piece of the skull where it belongs.

kritiper's avatar

Like you said, “Since humans already have the biological machinery to grow complete humans…” The technology doesn’t exist to create just that one desired part. You would have to create the whole thing, cut off what you didn’t need and throw the rest away. A lot of time, effort and expense to throw away so much. And throw it away is what you would have to do since the body that was grown and the body the part was grown for would not be compatible with any other body needing a part.

Patty_Melt's avatar

They are building heart valves for research, so they don’t have to use weakened humans as trial cases.

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