We are all familiar with prosthetic limbs, breast and butt implants, orthodontics and other plastic surgeries, but now technology is allowing humans to create new abilities. These include: • Being chipped with a small radio chip that stores your personal medical records or opens your front door. • Exoskeletons to help soldiers carry more and dramatically increase their strength. They have also helped disabled people walk again. • Contact lenses to create telescopic or night vision and even record video. • 3D printers to produce donor organs. Lab- grown bladders and vaginas are already in use and scientists are working on producing hearts, lungs and kidneys. • Gene editing through techniques like CRISPR-Cas9, which enables doctors to edit out genes that carry the risk of cancer and other diseases. The debate continues as to what is ethical.
Did you know?
An office complex in Sweden and a Belgian marketing firm offered chip implants to staff as a means of identification rather than swipe cards. The first 3-parent baby was born in 2016. To avoid Leigh syndrome, a fatal disease carried by the mother, the nucleus from the mother’s egg was transplanted into a donor egg, which was then fertilized by the father’s sperm.
