I don't know if I'm more disgusted by the idea of corpoids or the fact that a part of me understands the need for it. Imagine a complete human body, alive, breathing: but empty inside, devoid of consciousness and sensitivity. A casing of flesh and bones built to be dismantled piece by piece, organ by organ. The MIT Technology Review just published an article (if you can read it, is enlightening) in which three scientists argue that this disturbing prospect is not only possible, but imminent. Corpoids, they argue, could be the answer to the dramatic shortage of organs for transplant. A solution that makes a bit of sense, but that could save thousands of lives every year. Creating human bodies that exist only as a reserve of spare parts: an idea that seems like something out of the worst science fiction nightmares, yet we are already on the way to making it a reality.
A silent crisis of lives waiting
The urgency behind this almost dystopian proposal is tangible and has precise numbers. In Italy, about 8000 patients are waiting for a transplant. In the United States, more than 100.000 people are languishing on different lists, with 17 of them dying every damn day. It is a slow hemorrhage of lives that are extinguished while waiting for a compatible organ.
The authors of the article argue that corpoids could solve this problem by becoming an inexhaustible source of organs. perfectly human. So far, so good. There is one detail, however, that has troubled me. According to the authors, even if these bodies were truly incapable of thinking or feeling pain, their use would still not exceed “the ethical limits of most people”. Personally, I have not understood exactly what limits they are talking about, and to be honest I am not even so sure.
Alternatives to Corpoids Already in Development
Science, it must be said, is already exploring other less controversial avenues. One is represented by the organs of genetically modified animals. Traditional xenotransplants (transplants from animal to human) quickly fail because our immune system recognizes them as “foreign,” but several companies are creating pigs with genetic modifications that make their organs more acceptable for human bodies.
The results so far have been mixed. David Bennett Sr. was the first to receive a genetically modified pig heart in 2022, and Richard Slayman the first for a kidney in early 2024. Unfortunately both They died about two months after the surgery.
But there is also a success story: Towana Looney, the third person to receive a modified pig kidney, is doing much better since her surgery last November. “I have so much energy. I have an appetite that I haven’t had in eight years,” she said. “I can put my hand on this kidney and feel it vibrate.” She came back home in February.
The frontier of synthetic embryos
Even closer to the concept of corpoids is the approach of companies like Renewal Bio, an Israeli biotech that hopes to grow “embryonic versions of people” for organ replacement. Their research is based on advances in the development of “synthetic embryos.” Traditional embryos are created by combining an egg and a sperm, but scientists are developing ways to create them using stem cells that, under the right conditions, can divide into structures very similar to a typical embryo.
Scientists don't yet know how far these embryonic-like structures will grow. But they're already using them to try to impregnate cows and monkeys.
The very existence of these synthetic embryos is challenging our understanding of what a human embryo is. “Is it something that is generated only by the fusion of a sperm and an egg?” he asks. Naomi Moris, developmental biologist at the Crick Institute of London. “Or does it have to do with the types of cells it has, or the shape of the structure?” Good question. And it's not the only one that comes to mind.
Corpoids to speed up research, but at what cost?
The authors of the article on MIT Technology Review They also point out that corpoids could accelerate scientific and medical research.
Currently, most of the drug research must be conducted on laboratory animals before clinical trials can begin. But nonhuman animals may not respond as well as humans, and the vast majority of treatments that show promise in mice fail in humans. Research that many see as a waste of animal lives and time.
Personally, I recognize the need for this research in some cases, but I would prefer other solutions that scientists are working on, such as organoids. Real “organs on chips”, tiny collections of cells organized on a small piece of polymer that can resemble complete organs. Or digital twins of human organs. Both of these approaches seem somehow more acceptable to me than conducting experiments on a human being created without the ability to think or feel pain. Then, as that famous meme says, “change my mind”. Maybe in the comments on the social channels on Futuro Prossimo.
