Artificial Heart Ready for Human Trial

A French company has announced that its artificial heart technology is ready for testing on humans. It has been cleared for clinical trials in Belgium, Poland, Saudi Arabia and Slovenia, where training in surgical centers will begin soon. The heart completely replaces the original heart, and is regulated by sensors, software and microelectronics. Its power will come from two external, wearable lithium-ion batteries.

More information: http://nyti.ms/18WdNxW

Hey BCTF thank you for sharing this!
This could probably not have come at a better time. Once this is approved for use in humans i am sure we will see the transplant rate increase tenfold. This will also be a nice replacement for the use of animal cardiovascular tissue.
One thing that makes me worrysome however is a concept brought about in a popular jude law action film repo. Quick summary, artificial organs are the new big thing and anyone can afford one on credit so everyone begins replacing all their bad organs however when they are unable to make payments the repo men come and take back the organ regardless of the consequences. And in our commerce driven society i wonder how far a film such as this is. I mean really it would come as no surprise to me the banking system has no problem removing familys from homes so organs from a person really cant be that far off.
This article also bring up an interesting issue i would like to touch on. Which is this outdated moral and ethical codes in our society. With rapidly changing technology and the increased changes in our daily lives the ethical codes we implement should be changing to accommodate our societal development. But we still are using the same reasons of justification for holding science back. There has not really been a shift in thinking since the 1970's but maybe they could be one now.

I agree, there should be new laws or rules drawn out as technology advances. However, most people are quite traditional and don't want to embrace change. And I'm definitely going to watch that movie! It sounds amazing!

I actually heard though that the 3D printers people are now using can be poisonous. I'm not sure if that's what they use to make these artificial organs, but if it is that isn't the best start to this.