The Other Organ - IET Education



|The Other Organ |

| | | |

|Your Challenge: Future gazing |

|Engineered organs to make athletes fitter – Yes or no? Present your argument |

What’s the story?

The time is 2060. Clinical engineers are now able to make organs in the lab that perform better than natural human organs. People are able to give a small tissue sample and have their chosen organ grown to order. As a result, there are an increasing number of people having natural organs removed and higher performance, cultured organs implanted.

Many athletes have had extra muscle tissue implanted to give them greater strength. Some have even had hearts and lungs replaced with larger versions to increase the oxygen supply to their bodies. Scar-less surgery and the fact that this implanted organ tissue is indistinguishable from natural tissue means that it is impossible to spot.

More and more people are saying that sport should be ‘kept natural’, but some say that implanting cultured organs must be allowed because it is no different to training to improve strength, heart lung capacity etc. People in other professions are also having cultured organs implanted, mostly for upgraded eyes and muscle tissue for military personnel, with pilots and wanting upgraded eyes.

The International Federation for Athletes has asked for your opinion. They would like to hear your argument for or against engineered organs for athletes.

Growing organs?

The ability to grow organs for transplant from tissue samples in the lab would be a massive advance for medical science. There would be no more waiting lists for transplants and there would be no complicated cocktails of drugs to keep the body from rejecting the organs.

Surely there are no problems with this?

The answer is probably not. But what if it were possible to grow organs in the lab that had a higher performance than natural human organs? Would you be interested in eyes that had the same power as that of a hawk? How about muscles that could let you run 100 m in 8 seconds or less? What about kidneys that could remove LDL cholesterol from your blood?

If you could afford the operation, would you be tempted? What if having that operation gave you a big advantage in your job? Like never before, technological developments are happening faster than society can consider the moral and ethical issues they might present.

What you need to do

Once you have come up with your argument for or against engineered organs, make a five-minute video presenting your argument. Remember, there is no right or wrong way to do this. You can use any props you want, or none at all - it’s your choice. You should include:

▪ What your opinion is

▪ What your reasons are

▪ What this problem could mean for the future of sport

▪ A solution. Remember that your recommendations will only affect the world of sport, but you can use arguments from outside the world of sport to prove your point

Here are some questions to get you started…

▪ This kind of organ implantation is likely to be expensive, meaning that only wealthy people will be able to afford it. How might this affect the sporting prospects of a talented youngster from a less wealthy background?

▪ If a sportsperson has a medical need for an organ to be implanted, how could you decide on whether the performance of the implanted organ was greater than the original? The performance of such organs is likely to vary a bit naturally, how could you decide if the performance of an organ was too high?

▪ If people in other professions are making use of upgraded organ implants would it be fair to exclude sportspeople?

▪ What might be the consequences if it were possible to design and create new types of organs? For example, imagine a set of biological ‘wheels’ to replace legs? Would it be fair to allow an athlete on ‘wheels’ to compete with athletes on legs?

▪ Will organ implants exclude groups of people with particular religious beliefs from the top levels of sport?

Want more information? Check out these links…

Watch the film…

[pic] Nature Reinvented

On the internet:

▪ Q&A on BBC News about growing artificial bladders and other organs:

▪ Simple description on Wikipedia of some of the methods used in organ culturing:

Tips…

▪ Engage!

You have to communicate with your audience in an exciting and engaging fashion

▪ Understand!

You must show that you understand the science behind the challenge and your solution

▪ Solve!

You need to offer a solution to the problem you have been presented. The more innovative and interesting your approach the better!

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