A Frankenstein’s lab for growing ‘spare’ human bodies sounds like something ripped straight from an episode of Black Mirror.
But scientists really want to make this gruesome concept a reality.
In an article published in the MIT Technology Review, three Stanford University scientists argue that so-called ‘bodyoids’ could ‘revolutionise’ medicine.
Bodyoids would be physiologically identical to a normal human but engineered not to have consciousness or experience pain, they write.
The researchers argue that modern medical science is being held back by a severe shortage of ‘ethically sourced human bodies’.
Bodies are needed not only to test the medical interventions of the future but also to provide organs for lifesaving transplants.
These researchers argue that artificially grown bodies could provide ‘an almost unlimited source of organs, tissues, and cells for use in transplantation.’
While they acknowledge this technology raises serious moral issues, the scientists claim it should be possible ‘without crossing most people’s ethical lines’.
Scientists want to make a real-life Frankenstein’s lab to create ‘spare’ human bodies which could be used in medical trials. The researchers claim this would solve a ‘serious’ shortage of human biological material in science (stock image)
From cadavers for training medical students to cell samples and organs for medical trials, it is an unavoidably morbid fact that medical science needs bodies.
However, scientists Dr Carsten Charlesworth, Professor Henry Greely, and Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi now say that they are facing dire shortages of ‘human biological materials’ which are costing lives and holding back advancement.
In the US alone, there are more than 100,000 patients on the waiting list for an organ transplant; many of those will die before an organ becomes available
There are currently more than 8,000 people waiting for an organ in the UK; however, over 400 people died while waiting in the year 2023-24.
Without a good supply of human bodies, medical trials are conducted on non-human animals – but this is not a good solution.
The researchers argue that this is ‘can’t replicate major aspects of human physiology and makes it necessary to inflict harm on sentient creatures’.
However, new advancements in technology have now presented a bold solution – making bodies from scratch from a special type of cells.
This would give researchers and doctors a nearly endless supply of fresh human organs, without needing to wait for human donors to die.
Scientists have warned that a lack of human bodies and organs is holding back scientific progress and leading to patients missing out on life-saving organ transplants. The solution is to create artificial human bodies called bodyoids which have been engineered to lack sentience and not feel pain (stock image)
Although it might sound like science fiction, the technologies required are already undergoing rapid development.
Scientists have recently found new ways of encouraging ‘stem cells’, a special type of cell that forms very early in our development, to transform into other types of tissues.
Using these stem cells, researchers have already managed to create structures that mimic the first developmental stages of real human embryos.
At the same time, new research has opened up the possibility of developing foetuses inside artificial wombs, such as EctoLife in Berlin, Germany.
The researchers write: ‘Such technologies, together with established genetic techniques to inhibit brain development, make it possible to envision the creation of “bodyoids” – a potentially unlimited source of human bodies, developed entirely outside of a human body from stem cells, that lack sentience or the ability to feel pain.’
While the project is still just a concept, in theory it could create huge benefits for medical research in the near future.
Scientists would be able to test new drugs on real human tissues and bodies without endangering sentient test subjects or relying on animals.
Those in need of an organ transplant could even have an organ cloned from their own cells, ensuring a perfect immunological match.
The bodyoids would be created from stem cells induced to develop like a human embryo, these embryos could then be raised in an artificial womb until maturity. Pictured: Concept images for the EctoLife artificial womb
Recent advances in artificial womb technology have shown that lambs can develop outside of their mothers (pictured). If this technology could be applied to humans, it could allow for the creation of bodies that have never been inside a human mother
Using bodyoids derived from a patient’s DNA could even let doctors screen medicines and see exactly how they would be affected before starting treatment themselves – reminiscent of the digital clones in Black Mirror.
The researchers even argue that non-human bodyoids could be used to grow cattle for human consumption, creating an ethical alternative substitute for sentient animals.
However, the ethical and legal barriers to creating a bodyoid may be even more daunting than the technical challenge.
‘Many will find the concept grotesque or appalling,’ say the scientists.
‘And for good reason. We have an innate respect for human life in all its forms. We do not allow broad research on people who no longer have consciousness or, in some cases, never had it.’
Likewise, they acknowledge that bodyoids risk diminishing the status of real people who have lost consciousness or sentience after injuries.
But they still maintain that these concerns are outweighed by the potential benefits to humanity and call for more research and a broader public discussion of the issue.
They conclude: ‘Caution is warranted, but so is bold vision; the opportunity is too important to ignore.’
