

New Skin Printer Could Print Some New Skin For You - chadp
http://singularityhub.com/2010/11/04/wake-forest-could-print-you-some-new-skin/

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Jabbles
Amazing advances in medicine continue with the help of animal testing. In this
case, rats were deliberately wounded to observe the healing process. A moral
minefield.

~~~
chadp
Depends on how you look at it I suppose.

If one thinks that unique human beings are more important than lab rats that
are farmed to be experimented on then it is perfectly moral.

Put another way, if someone in your family had 3rd degree burns to their face
and whole upper body and needed new skin. Would you sacrifice a few lab rats
to save your family member's life and let them lead a normal life again?

Or would you say, sorry we could have helped you but we couldn't bear to hurt
the poor rats to find the solution to your problem?

(and we can replace skin with hearts, liver, kidney, lungs, eyes and any other
organ that might be able to be replaced in the future)

~~~
Jabbles
Exactly, it depends on the value you put on animal welfare.

I don't put a particularly high value on it, but I can see that deciding where
to put the line is a "moral minefield". In this case, I am more than happy to
sacrifice lab rats.

But what about when the product needs to be tested on pigs/monkeys? What if
the product then fails its human trials. Is it still worth it?

~~~
chadp
Yes this will be an increasing topic of debate in the press as genomics,
medicine, nanotech, designer drugs and robotics fields' progress in the coming
years.

Funny thing is that your's and my opinions of where the line should be drawn
are irrelevant along with the opinion of sovereign governments' (opinions and
related laws). The scientists to do this work will do it anyway and anywhere
based on available funding and their personal moral compass.

