Comment by ngriffiths

Comment by ngriffiths 3 days ago

18 replies

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Because research on real humans and real diseases is exceptionally difficult. Clinical research is notoriously expensive, results are likely to differ from non-human (preclinical) models, and trials take forever to get started, gather enough data, and get a drug actually reviewed and approved. So even when everyone is excited by the preclinical data, there are so many barriers (both scientific and non-scientific) that getting to an approved drug is pretty unlikely.

dyauspitr 3 days ago

We really should be able to grow human bodies without a brain for testing purposes. It’s gruesome but realistically victimless at the end of the day.

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  • dekhn 3 days ago

    This sounds ethically questionable to me. I wouldn't rule it out entirely, but I'd want to see a well-reasoned argument, both technical and moral, that it was likely to lead to greatly reduced suffering for patients. Even then.... growing a body without a brain likely would not produce a model organism with predictive ability for human diseases.

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    • dyauspitr 3 days ago

      I believe it could for a large number of tests. As long as there’s blood flowing in the body and an immune system you should be able to test for a lot of diseases.

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      • dekhn 3 days ago

        I simply cannot see a technical path to achieve what you're describing.

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        • dyauspitr 3 days ago

          Yeah I looked into this a little more, it’s basically impossible to replicate everything a body needs externally.

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  • ngriffiths 3 days ago

    I don't think the biology is there, let alone consensus on the major ethical questions involved

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  • namuol 2 days ago

    > human bodies without a brain for testing

    I think the way a drug impacts the brain is kind of important

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  • giardini 3 days ago

    Can you imagine the political/religious push-back were you to do that?!

    Growth of single human organs or organ tissue is easier, cheaper and less fraught with political peril.

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    • baka367 3 days ago

      As someone whose mother died to pancan, I could really care less on any of the brainwashed old farts in their churches or parliaments. None of that matters to me or the people suffering from cancers, it’s al Knut a selfish obstruction attaching religion to the research material

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      • lenerdenator 3 days ago

        I hear ya. I don't care what they think either.

        Unfortunately, they can vote.

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      • giardini 3 days ago

        Hey, you missed the easier, cheaper part. Answer rationally, otherwise you're just social network clickbait.

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  • Tade0 3 days ago

    We have the next best thing: organoids.

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  • kens 3 days ago

    A more practical option is using brain-dead humans for medical testing. This was discussed recently in the journal Science, using the term "physiologically maintained deceased". As they say, this "traverses complex ethical and moral terrain". (I've seen enough zombie movies to know how this ends up :-)

    https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt3527

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  • stevenwoo 3 days ago

    The anti abortion and anti birth control contingent would never let even a little of that happen in countries with significant fundamentalist and Catholic voters. There are plenty of examples where these people force babies to be born without a brain on principle. Just recently https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/louisiana-woman-carryin... One can go back to something like Terri Schiavo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terri_Schiavo_case

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