Hi Sandra, I need some advice on medical technology! 😊

Hi Manuel, hopefully not for yourself …?                                               

No, thank goodness, for a piece I’m writing. 😊

Oh, ok, always glad to help. 😊                                                                

OK, rapid fire questions about science or sci-fi! Ready!

I sure hope so: ready!                                                                                

Artificial wombs?

There’s some in the animal testing stage, but just for premature births, not right from conception: Artificial Womb

OK. Tricorders? 

Tricorders? 🤔                                                                                            

It’s a term from Star Trek: a handheld device that can provide a quick diagnosis

Oh, well, those exist or are in development for some specific cases, not an overall diagnosis: Medical Tricorders

Great! Last one is an open question: what is the most sci-fi-like real development?

Where do I begin! There’s so much going on in medical technology nowadays …

Prosthetics and Exoskeletons?

Maybe, but I’m more exited by biological breakthroughs involving living tissue

Tell me all about it!

There’s been some serious advances in regenerative medicine, for example for the skin

you can just spray on a thin layer of healthy cells from the patient, instead of using grafts: Advances in Skin Tissue

Wow that does sound like sci-fi to me!

Lucky for us it isn’t: it’s science!  😉                                                        

It may sound very apocalyptic, but it is a very remote possibility.     

And yet something that we have to think about before it is too late.

Absolutely! We do want policies in place for how things should be used.

Right, and that’s why we collaborated not just with engineers and programmes, but with doctors, patients, ethicists, etc.

Sounds like a very good idea. Still: are you a cyborg when you have an IMD? 😅

Wow, that’s quite the question! I’m not sure, it seems like a gradual thing …

Gradual? What do you mean? 🤔

Well, “cyborg” sounds like you’re half a robot, not a natural human anymore.

But we do so many other things that aren’t, you know, “biologically” natural

Like, … wearing clothes? Unlike animals? 😉

Yeah, maybe that is how it started, but think of everything else too: fire, tool use, building houses, etc.

and then specifically changing our bodies. Wouldn’t every medical intervention make you “unnatural” then?

There actually are some religions that suggest stuff like that …

I know, but that’s not how I feel. Am I a cyborg for wearing glasses? Wearing contacts? Getting eye surgery? 🤓

I see what you mean with “gradual” now …

It’s not like a BCI or IMD takes over, it modifies who you are and how you act, just like a pill, or a glass of wine 

So, it’s more subtle than that

Exactly. It’s not like a pacemaker or a BCI turn you into a robot, in a sense it is not unlike any other tool, but now it is part of your body. 

And because it changes what you can do, it is of ethical concern?

Yes, anything that restores our capacity for action or gives us new options, raises ethical issues 

Thank you so much! This has been very helpful! 😊