So I was having a discussion with [PrivateTechquity 🚀GME+BBBYQ💀] on the Sheikh post (very funny, I might add) about Nick Cannon and the idea that he may be having all of these children so that he can get an organ donor match for his lupus and other health issues, which spurred a broader dialogue on organ replication. This leads me to a few additional thoughts:
1. If people could have a 3D printer that could print them a new ear that wouldn't be rejected and you just stitch the new one on, I don't see that as a huge issue. People are already making advances in synthesizing organs from stem cells, and no one seems to be really flipping out over it, so I see it as a welcome advance.
2. I think the bigger issue gets to be when people start trying to clone other fully functioning organisms. Like some millionaire or billionaire tries to synthesize his long-lost dog... or child... or supermodel girlfriend. If you print an organ, the organ is arguably your chattel, your property. But what happens if you synthesize a dog? Still probably your property no? If it's human though, you can't just let people own that. How many human organs is too many before you actually consider it a person? Replicating a working mind is likely going to take hundreds of years, but it's still a trippy thing to think about.
3. Let's say a very wealthy infertile woman pays for the development of an artificial uterus to carry her fertilized embryos, is that okay? It's basically an artificial surrogate. At that point you could run as many of them as you wanted, particularly if you could replicate the embryos too. Would this change factory farming? Do you just lab grow sheets of ground beef and forget this whole raising cows thing?
4. The potential for biohacking is enormous. What if someone wanted to be a fully-organic quadruped or something? Couldn't they grow more legs for themselves? Could you make bespoke organs with new functionalities that haven't even been thought of yet? Like something that works kind of like a kidney except it cleans your arteries or something? Giving people new senses? Even something like wearing a top-hat made out of pancreas. Lady Gaga would have a field day.
Interested in your thoughts on all this foolishness.
Why would all these technically be unethical? Changing your entire gender and even other people's genders is already ethical
It’s ethical or unethical?
I'm trying to say - mainstream society already views this (changing your entire gender, and other people's gender (surgeons freely giving gender-affirming surgery to the person who asks for it) ) as nothing wrong. In society, it's perfectly ethical to change your entire gender, and in fact you're a dick and are transphobic if you disagree.
So if THAT is already ethical, what's wrong with cloning organs, biohacking, whatever? Aren't those peanuts to changing your whole gender? Isn't gender-affirming surgery basically biohacking already?
Leaving trans folks out of it for a second, it's already considered mainstream to undergo surgery for a new nose, new boobs, remove fat, etc. There is exceptionally little difference between grafting skin from your ass onto a burn on your face, which is where most extra skin tissue comes from, and growing a new organ from your DNA to replace a failing liver.
The dog was already your property.
And as for organs, it depends. A situation like the movie The Island, where you're cloning people to harvest their organs, is obviously unethical. But if you can grow a liver on its own? I don't see an issue, especially if it is your genetic material.
I'm not sure I see an issue here. How does the artificial uterus get "grown"? If it's the woman's DNA, then there is prima facie no issue; her genetic material, her property. If it's someone else's, I still see no issue - you'll have to have robust legal protections, but no more so than with the current concept of surrogates. And yes, I'm sure that's where we're heading in terms of animal products.
I mean... why anyone would want a top hat made out of a pancreas is beyond me. As for the rest of it, I am not a biologist, so perhaps I'm wrong... but I find it very difficult to believe that our brains and nervous systems are equipped to handle new organs. A new ear or leg or liver is just slotting in to a pre-established neural network - an organ which has an entirely new purpose might not graft into your nervous system very well. Similarly, millions of years of evolution have brought us to where we are as bipedal organisms, I don't think adding a couple extra legs is just as easy as a couple hours of surgery and then off you go.
To the extent all of that gets figured out... who cares? Wouldn't make a bit of difference.
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