(Opinion) It is in the nature of things that biotechs repeatedly try to cross ethical and religious boundaries to promote new technologies.
This also applies to the Israeli “Renewal Bio“, which, according to US media reports, wants to harvest cells or tissues from human embryo or fetus models for clinical use.
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The company calls itself a bio platform to renew human health.
Behind this slick slogan lies nothing less than organ harvesting on an industrial scale and once again suggests that many technical achievements of the fourth industrial revolution can and will lead to derailment and social uproar without a globally acting, powerful and well-organized people’s movement.
“We don’t want to freak people out,” says company founder and stem cell biologist Jacob Hanna, aware of how explosive this project is.
SYNTHETIC HUMAN EMBRYOS
Before we go much further, what exactly are synthetic human embryos or embryo models?
They are embryo-like structures made from human pluripotent stem cells. Under the right growth conditions, these stem cells will start spontaneously forming embryo-like structures. It’s fascinating and disturbing.
So far, such models have been grown for only days or at most about two weeks or a little more.
The company intents to facilitate transplants with this technology. In addition, the researchers claim that treating diseases such as infertility, hereditary diseases, and aging would be possible.
“Renewal Bio, the Israel-based company, wants to use this science for organ tissue transplants that could solve infertility, genetic diseases, and issues related to old age.
Renewal Bio aims to make humanity younger and healthier by leveraging … new stem cell technology.” pic.twitter.com/4KCypiGcVp— Draven S. 🐭🏴☠️ (@DravenS17) August 22, 2022
According to the report, the embryos will remain alive until they develop a beating heart and a brain. According to the researchers, the so-called “synthetic embryos” are created without sperm, eggs, or a uterus and kept alive until a particular stage.
“The embryo is the best organ-making machine and the best 3D bio-printer – we tried to mimic what it can do,” Jacob Hanna, a researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
An Israeli startup is going to create personal human clones for the sake of a spare set of organs. Renewal Bio has shared its plans to create realistic synthetic embryos to be grown in artificial uteruses from stem cells (without the use of sperm or eggs). Scientists have pic.twitter.com/cP7JBQh2XW
— 🇺🇸Texas Tweetheart🇺🇸 (@MechelleChristy) August 24, 2022
“Remarkably, we show that embryonic stem cells create entire synthetic embryos, which also means the placenta and yolk sac surrounding the embryo,” Hanna said. “We’re really excited about this work and its implications.”
On its website, the biotech company touts its purported mission to counteract declining birth rates and a rapidly aging population.
ICMYI: ‘We don’t want to freak people out’: risks outweigh potential rewards from that Jacob Hanna human embryo model startup Renewal Bio. Some analysis https://t.co/cfQTMvBXss #stemcell
— Paul Knoepfler (@pknoepfler) August 19, 2022
“To solve these complex and mutually reinforcing problems, Renewal Bio aims to make humanity younger and healthier by harnessing the power of new stem cell technology,” the company’s website says.
The question is how far science will go in the name of “progress.”
If the previous industrial revolutions have taught us anything, it is that it is not a good idea to leave it up to the industrialists themselves to decide what can and cannot be produced.
The representatives of the fourth industrial revolution must be confronted with a set of rules that reflects the state of development of our society not only in technological terms but also in ethical and moral terms.
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