Pioneering surgeon Susan Lim performed the first liver transplant in Asia. But a moral concern with transplants (where do donor livers come from ...) led her to look further, and to ask: Could we be transplanting cells, not whole organs? At the INK Conference, she talks through her new research, discovering healing cells in some surprising places.
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I find this talk really bad. Apart from the fact that it is vague and not very informative, She does not talk enough abaut the difficulties that would have to be overcome. Most annoying is the moral equation of harvesting organs from executed prisoners with harvesting cells from 5 day embryos. As if the moral issues could be in any way comparable...
Well contrary to Beebeeo's view, this was quite a good talk. The issues were well articulated. The progress in transplantation is amazing. Although, while this was the perspective of one person's journey, there is another issue that deserves mention.
While the demand far out weighs the supply for organ transplants, some people have the resources to by-pass others in the process. This is likely certainly true on a global scale more so than in the US. But the case of Steve Jobs is an example.
While I cannot begrudge Mr Jobs his transplant, his resources allowed him to jump passed others also deserving of a transplant. We do need better health care systems and fairer ones as well.