If you were planning on taking your guts on vacation for a little organ tourism, think again. Organ tourism is a lot like sex tourism, though rather than picking up a prostitute or STDs you pick up a nice liver or kidney instead. Last week China formally announced it was ending its policy of harvesting organs from executed prisoners and starting a volunteer organ donation program nationwide, thus likely bringing an end to China’s thriving black market for organs. Personally, organ tourism brings to mind visions of livers and kidneys sitting on the beach sipping daiquiris. But we know it’s not quite like that.
Posts Tagged ‘stem cells’
Guts on Vacation
Posted: Thursday, September 10th, 2009The future of tissue (no, no, not Kleenex)
Posted: Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
For anyone who has ever wished they could trade in their broken pancreas for a new one, here’s some good news: Canadian scientists are getting closer to making replacement organs. The researchers encouraged stem cells to make the building blocks for what could turn into lungs, livers and pancreases, reported the journal Stem Cell. It will likely be decades before you’ll be able to order up a new set of lungs along with a pack of Marlboros at your local 7-11, but it’s still really cool science.


























