(Please note: Images are a combination of my own photographs taken at an exhibit in Paris, and scanned images from 'Electron Microscopy of cells and tissue' vol1 S.sjostrand)
My interest in this project lies in the current scientific research at Nottingham's Biocity science park. Whilst reading their annual journal, I learnt of the ground breaking research conducted at Biocity, and was amazed at their ability to grow organs.
In a discussion with a fellow pupil, I was informed that organs are in fact cast and grown inside existing animal organs, such as pig hearts. The organ is then trained throughout the growth before being transplanted, hypothetically of course, into the patient. Obviously a whole range of moral and ethical issues are raised by this procedure, deeming it inappropriate for public application.
During this conversation, and further triggered by the various government and NHS advertisements, I remembered a statistic I read earlier this year released by Sally Johnson of the NHS blood and transplant department.
"less than 10% of the 40,000 patients needing a heart last year actually recieved them, with simular statistics relating to Skin, Liver and Kidneys. If we are to meet the growing need for organs across the UK we desperately need more people to sign up as organ donors."
The fact of the matter is, everything we need to solve this problem is already available... we are the solution, us, our bodies. Not just our healthy organs, but everything else our body offers after death is either incinerated or buried and left to rot away, all because we don't carry a donor card...
My future industry will address the ethical issues of todays research in organ growing, and challenge the public perception of human recycling programmes. How will people feel in 50 years if hypothetically speaking 90% of the population were willing to donate their bodies after death in order to help others?
If everybody's doing it, why wouldn't you?
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