Department of Science, Technology and Innovation Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
J Med Ethics. 2017 Sep;43(9):618-624. doi: 10.1136/medethics-2015-103347. Epub 2017 Mar 20.
In this article, we review the extant social science and ethical literature on three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting. 3D bioprinting has the potential to be a 'game-changer', printing human organs on demand, no longer necessitating the need for living or deceased human donation or animal transplantation. Although the technology is not yet at the level required to bioprint an entire organ, 3D bioprinting may have a variety of other mid-term and short-term benefits that also have positive ethical consequences, for example, creating alternatives to animal testing, filling a therapeutic need for minors and avoiding species boundary crossing. Despite a lack of current socioethical engagement with the consequences of the technology, we outline what we see as some preliminary practical, ethical and regulatory issues that need tackling. These relate to managing public expectations and the continuing reliance on technoscientific solutions to diseases that affect high-income countries. Avoiding prescribing a course of action for the way forward in terms of research agendas, we do briefly outline one possible ethical framework 'Responsible Research Innovation' as an oversight model should 3D bioprinting promises are ever realised. 3D bioprinting has a lot to offer in the course of time should it move beyond a conceptual therapy, but is an area that requires ethical oversight and regulation and debate, in the here and now. The purpose of this article is to begin that discussion.
在本文中，我们回顾了关于三维（3D）生物打印的现有社会科学和伦理文献。3D 生物打印有可能成为一种“游戏规则改变者”，按需打印人体器官，不再需要活体或已故人类捐赠或动物移植。尽管该技术尚未达到生物打印整个器官的水平，但 3D 生物打印可能具有多种其他中期和短期利益，也具有积极的伦理后果，例如，创造动物测试的替代品，满足未成年人的治疗需求，并避免跨越物种界限。尽管目前对该技术的后果缺乏社会伦理参与，但我们概述了我们认为一些初步的实际、伦理和监管问题需要解决。这些问题涉及管理公众期望和继续依赖技术科学解决方案来治疗影响高收入国家的疾病。我们避免为研究议程指明前进的道路，但简要概述了一个可能的伦理框架“负责任的研究创新”，因为如果 3D 生物打印的承诺得以实现，这将是一个监督模式。随着时间的推移，3D 生物打印可能会提供很多东西，如果它不仅仅是一种概念性的治疗方法，但它是一个需要伦理监督和辩论的领域，就在此时此地。本文的目的是开始讨论。
