Profound ethical questions raised about how medicine defines death
researchers at yale university used a new technique to restore cells in some organs of pigs that had just died, putting the animals’ cells back into action.
the results were published nearly a month ago in the scientific journal nature and raised profound ethical questions about how medicine defines death, but it also raised new possibilities for humans collecting transplantable organs.
“my eyes widened,” brendan barnett, assistant professor of bioethics at new york university’s grossman school of medicine, said of the moment he first read the new findings. “my brain went to all the crazy places we could go in 20 or 30 years.”
the research is still in an early experimental stage and has many years of potential use in humans. it could eventually help extend the lives of people whose hearts have stopped beating or who have had a stroke.
the technology also shows the potential to fundamentally change how organs are collected for transplantation and increase their availability to patients in need.
when the heart stops beating, blood flow to the body is cut off in a process called ischemia and a series of biochemical effects begin. oxygen and nutrients are cut off from tissues. the cells begin to die. it is a path toward death that causes damage that scholars have deemed irreversible.
however, the new research challenges the idea. “cell demise can be stopped,” said dr. nenad sestan, professor of neuroscience at yale university school of medicine and author of the new research. “we restored some function of cells across multiple organs that were supposed to be dead,” he added.
yale university researchers achieved this feat by building a system of pumps, sensors, and tubes that connect to pigs’ arteries. they also developed a formulation containing 13 medicinal drugs that could be mixed with blood and then injected into the animals’ cardiovascular systems.
the search is based on previous work at yale university, which showed that some damage to brain cells can be reversed after blood flow is interrupted. the study said yale university has filed a patent for the new technology but is making its methods and protocols freely available for academic or nonprofit use.
“the assumption that the loss of oxygen to the brain or organs within seconds to minutes means that these organs have experienced irreversible damage and loss is not correct,” said nita farhani, a neuroethics, and professor of law at duke university, who was not involved in the study...
it is a technique that is still in its early stages, but it could be influential enough to redefine the line between life and death.”
on the other hand, in what could be considered a revolution in the world of organ transplantation, researchers were able to produce artificial mouse embryos from stem cells, removing the need for sperm, eggs, and even the uterus. this was done at the weizmann institute of science, in israel, and the results were reached based on two things, the first is to reprogram stem cells, which facilitates the process of distinguishing them from other cells, and the second is to focus on developing a device that enables embryos to grow outside the womb. by combining the two techniques, the team was able to develop some of the most advanced artificial mouse embryos to date.
