As of the summer in 2020 a new organ donation law will come into force in the Netherlands. Currently, you can only donate your organs post mortem with explicit consent of the donor or relatives. This system will be replaced by an active donor registration system. Everyone will be an organ donor, except when you register as a non-donor or when you exclude certain organs.
The Dutch ‘Transplantatie stichting’ (transplantation foundation) is glad with the progress. However, still are a few hundred patients dying because they could not get a donor transplant. Also, the waiting list still had more than 1800 patients in 2018. This number keeps growing every year. The expectation is that the new law will help more patients to get their desperately wanted organs, but it still will not be enough. New innovations will have to come up to make sure that everyone can get organs in time before it is too late.
3D printing is changing; it is not only used at home or at schools. It is now possible to even print food, and this is even still the beginning. In the summer of 2019, scientist found a new way to print vascular tissue from living cells with a 3D printer. Eventually, scientists will be able to print whole living organs with this technology! The new successes brought in a new funding of $8.7 million dollars, speeding up the commercialization of organ printing.
A huge pro of 3D printing organs is that the technology can use living cells from the patient to grow the organs. Making it less likely that the organ will be repelled by the body, something that happens a lot with today’s transplantations.
Although the goal is to make 3D printed organs cost the same as a human organ donation, 3D printed organs will stay very expensive over the next few years. Also, more investments have to be made for more research to make 3D printed organs possible.
– Do you think there are still human donors needed in a few years?
– Would you still be willing to be an organ donor if the technology to 3D print organs would be available?
– Would you want a 3D printed organ or a real human organ?
References
Alexander, D. (2019, 7 13). The Emerging Industry of 3D Printed Organs Will Become a Billion Dollar Industry in 10 Years. Opgeroepen op 10 2, 2019, van Interesting Engineering: https://interestingengineering.com/the-emerging-industry-of-3d-printed-organs-will-become-a-billion-dollar-industry-in-10-years
Bergwerff, M. (2019, 1 31). Aantal orgaandonaties stijgt: ‘Maar het zijn er nog lang niet genoeg’. Opgeroepen op 10 2, 2019, van NU.nl: https://www.nu.nl/gezondheid/5709771/aantal-orgaandonaties-stijgt-maar-het-zijn-er-nog-lang-niet-genoeg.html
Haase-Kromwijk, B., Reiger, J., Schaefer, B., & Kleijwegt, R. (2019). Jaarverslag 2018. Nederlandse Transplantatie Stichting.
Shieber, J. (2019, 8 11). 3D-printing organs moves a few more steps closer to commercialization. Opgeroepen op 10 2, 2019, van Techcrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/11/3d-printing-organs-moves-a-few-more-steps-closer-to-commercialization/
Hi Daan, I think this is a super interesting and amazing innovation still leaving the reader suspicious though about when this might be applicable. Indeed, I could imagine this technology to have a rather positive than negative impact, although high regulations would need to be in place. And who is going to print these organs? Additionally, the topic of organ discussions is already intensively discussed without mentioning AI, posing the question of maybe making every citizen an organ donor and only excluding them when they explicitly state it as organs are urgently needed.