Building brand new kidneys

Gottlieb, S. (2002, February 13). Building bran new kidneys News from The Scientist, p. 3(1). Retrieved from: http://www.the-scientist.com/news/20020213/04/


The Biotech company ACT (Advanced Cell Technology) did something no one considered possible back twenty years ago, they created an organ an from the cells of a cloned cow. More specifically, that organ is the Kidney, or at least Kidney-like organs, that are NOT rejected when implanted in cows. See, during an organ transplant, a patient's immune system must be suppressed, or else it'll attack the new organ and make the transplant a failure. During this time, patients are very exposed to bacteria and germs, and are at no position to defend their bodies. With cloned organs however, this process would be moot since the organs retain the same DNA as the patient, thus the immune system would not attack. This is what the article explains, and delves into. It raises the ethical question on whether growing clones just for harvesting body parts is right. While kidneys are simple to produce alone, other organs would be able to be made easier with the whole body intact. In fact, why not just grow a whole body and put it on storage until you need a part?