h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'd like to invent some sort of drug/chemical/what have you that would allow the human body to accept an organ transplant from *any* donor with no (or very very little) chance of rejection. There are a lot of advances in our current medical sciences involved in studying the T-cells in the human body that cause the body to reject foreign organs, but the medical profession talks about possible periods of decades or more before even the smallest advances in "turning off" these T-cells become reality...

I had two relatives who died simply because they were unable to find compatible donors. It wasn't a matter of a lack of donor organs, it was a matter of incompatibility in both cases. One even received a transplant from a family member thought to be "a perfect match," but the organ was still rejected in the long run...

There are a lot of people now who are donors, and I think such a cure/solution would be beneficial not only to the patients receiving the organ transplants, but it would also be good to know for the donors: knowing that their organs, if it ever came down to it, would absolutely without a doubt be useful to someone out there.

- ametropia

Rejection has a purpose ok? It's there so people don't get sick as often as they would otherwise. And even transplants that are successful mean the body's immune system has to be impaired with drugs for life because even a close match isn't a match, which means these people are more susceptable to infections and stuff and also get kinda chubby looking too as a side effect.

I guess if people's quality of life isn't too impaired by this stuff the tradeoffs might make sense but I gotta think maybe tinkering with this stuff is not an especially good idea in the first place. Death is part of life and natural. People are always looking for ways to live forever or just a little longer or whatever but we're all gonna die for sure so sometimes it's better to just accept that and stop wasting your valuable time with schemes to putoff the inevitable.

Instead of trying to live long it might be better to learn to live well and give yourself back to the world that nurtured you.

I'm sure your opinion would have been appriciated by my 8 and 10 year old cousins, the two relatives I was speaking about. Heaven forbid they should have wanted to live longer. My mistake. *bows apologetically*

- ametropia

I'm sure my opinion wouldn't be appreciated by your cousins. They probably wouldn't have appreciated that other people's cousins are dying everyday not because of organ rejection but because they can't afford food let alone transplants.

No... I'm the one that should be bowing apologetically for presuming to even question the absolute and exclusive right of your cousins to live in this world no matter what the consequences might be.

So sorry... my mistake.

Well, I could respond to this, but I won't. The Eureka! thing was all about posting something you wanted to invent (or wanted to lay claim to, etc etc) and that is what I did. End of story.

- ametropia

It's funny how when you try to put things a larger context for people sometimes they get really offended. It's like it never occurs to them that they might actually share this world with others.

So the story's far from ended I think.

heck I'm not offended, but I don't feel this is the place to debate the topic. If you'd like to create a different place to hash it out, be my guest, I'll join in. Otherwise, I didn't create this to form a debate, just to post exactly what the Eureka project asked for.

- ametropia

If we are reasonably fit and well, we can't help trying to live longer, it's programmed into us and most other animals.

I had my transplant 11 years ago and my quality of life has been good ever since. However, the real answer would be a way of switching on the system which caused our bodies to grow in the first place. Growing new organs or limbs should be possible, the mechanism is there but dormant.

I've heard about that They say that any cell in our bodies can, in theory, grow any part of our bodies if we can only figure out how to turn it on.

- ametropia

lilithcookie-

you aren't putting things 'in a larger perspective'.

You are a cynic.

Yeah... Phil... bummer ain't it?

but if I was really cynical I'd have told Ametropia it was a great idea... and then loaded up on pharmaceutical stocks anticipating all those chronically ill but still alive people descending on clinics all over the place because even a common cold would be a major catastrophy with all your T-cells shutdown.

Now growing organs like lizards grow tails might work. That's a better idea than doing the ebay thang with transplants... for everybody concerned... don't you think?

Except it'll probably never fly because it would mean we would need fewer doctors and almost no huge multinational pharmiceutical outfits and they wouldn't stand for something that cut into their action.

Oh... but I'm probably just being cynical again... sorry.

I don't think you are aware of the advances in imuno-suppression. The idea is to target particular parts of the imune system to a level that prevents rejection of the transplanted organ, but leaves the patient able to fight common infections. To a large extent, this is possible. Since my transplant 11 years ago, I have never had any serious infections.

That's great to hear. You still have to take anti-rejection drugs though right?

Yes. A cocktail of three different types.

I was sure that one existed!

It should.

I'll add it to the next smiley ideas list.

TRiG.