'Synthetic embryo' breakthrough but growing human organs far off

If the main purpose is to develop organs that can be used for human patients xenotransplantation is a much better option right now, animals engineered to produce organs that would not be rejected as those coming from normal animals or other people, the technology is not yet mature and some problems remain, but it is much more closer to be used practically than developing the embryos from the person stem cells and harvest organs from them (not to mention much more ethically simple to justify).

Or maybe the middle ground, which would be to grow human organs derived from stem cells in animal embryos. Japan has been quite advanced in this aspect with mouse chimeras already working and experiments in bigger animals giving some positive results.

There is a whole pandoras box of ethical questions with this. Expect the most rapid development of these techniques in countries with zero ethical qualms like CCP China.

The Brave New World has arrived

Exaggerating much? mouse cells aggregating themselves into something resembling an embryo (but not actually becoming one) is completely different from having people genetically designed. Nothing is even said about how the future synthetic embryos could be even modified, the scientists have their hands full trying to get even single organs yet.

WilliB....

Expect the most rapid development of these techniques in countries with zero ethical qualms like CCP China.

Some posters manage to get a China bash into every story. This was in Israel, a country not known for its ethics.

Some posters manage to get a China bash into every story. This was in Israel, a country not known for its ethics.

And there is no ethical problem with this, China on the other hand has examples like He Jiankui's work, where 3 babies were unethically manipulated thanks to very lax regulations and a culture of disregarding ethical concerns. Unfortunately for Jiankui his actions were too much even for the Chinese scientific community to disguise, so he ended up being severely punished, so hopefully the country will pay more attention to ethics from now, we will see.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/08/cloning-crispr-he-jiankui-china-biotech-boom-could-transform-lives-destroy-them/

but growing human organs far off

Not according to my doctor. He says in 6 years we’ll be able to grow our own organs for transplants.

Not according to my doctor. He says in 6 years we’ll be able to grow our own organs for transplants.

You can "grow" your own organs for transplants (in other people) right now. But organs for you made from scratch in a lab? not likely to happen in the following 10 years, unless your doctor is working in something that has not been made public he is just being too optimistic.