(This bit of news came out in 09, but I never heard about it) So I was reading an article at cracked.com and one part of the article talked about lab grown penises. That article pointed towards this article (Lab-grown penis lets rabbits mate like bunnies - Technology & science - Science | NBC News), which explains that this urologist grew rabbit penises in a lab from the cells of the rabbits and reattached them to the rabbits that proceeded to successfully procreate some time after. The whole process took about 6 weeks and even though that are no human trials yet, its quite promising. The Doc also said that he's successfully grown clitoral tissue, so MtFs could also benefit from this. I think this is possibly the best and most promising future tech for transgender folk.
This could be really great for trans people, but I don't like the idea of using it on intersexed folks. (Which he was hinting at in the article.) There's no way to tell for sure, when looking at a newborn with ambiguous genitalia, whether that child will grow up to identify as male, female or non-binary. Better just lo leave their organs alone until they're old enough to tell you what they want. Otherwise you end up with a sort of an 'iatrogenic transgender' issue - like the John/Joan case.
Wow that's amazing it could probably eliminate the need for organ donors in the future. But i agree with ettina they should leave intersex babies alone and let them decide if they want anything done when they are older.
This was incredibly exciting to hear. The bottom surgery for FtM individuals seems so behind, and with all the progress we've been making in the medical field, it'd be great if we had a breakthrough like this become available to people. Is there anywhere we could get some more updated information on the progress of this research, seeing as it's been over 4 years since this was announced? Still, gives us something to look forward to!
maybe when I'm 20 (7 years) or 21 then they would have practically perfected this! Then I can get my own penis xD (oh god that sounds so wrong.)
I have mixed emotions about things like this..I don't exactly like that people are trying to "play god"..My emotions are very mixed on things like this...........
I have mixed feelings about this, as much as this would help people, what about the animals they test it on. how the hell would you feel growing up in a lab just for the purpose of someone growing a penis on your back? Not to turn this into an animal rights discussion just a thought. Its also worrying that this is focused on "helping" intersex babies which I don't agree with either. The end product could be absolutely wonderful but the means are a bit disturbing.
I want a rabbit penis :0 Sign me up. Take my money...Of course, it'll be years before this crap's ready for human trials.
It probably won't work for FTMs. They were grafting penises onto male rabbits that had their penis removed, meaning most of the hardware was already there, including the blood vessels. DeLuna: mankind has played god for centuries. This isn't much different than selectively breeding plants and animals that wouldn't otherwise exist. On top of that, the scientists are using the rabbit's own cells. earthlvr: Then I suggest you don't look up early means of modern surgical techniques..
Keep in mind that animal research helps animals too. My diabetic cat would have missed out on two great years of life if Joseph von Mering and Oskar Minkowski hadn't experimented with removing the pancreases (pancrei?) of dogs. Though I dunno how much demand there'll be for penis replacements in animals. But personally I think removing a rabbit's penis is no worse than removing a cat's balls, and I've gotten vets to do that many times.
I get why you feel about this, since I also think it will be a new excuse for doctors to assign a sex to inter-sexed babies before they can even speak, but I think that in the long run it might be possible to grow a penis for an adult. If the technology develops enough, I don't see why not.
This is like borderline animal cruelty, that's my issue. I mean yeah the experimentation may help stuff like cancer... ...but growing a penis...on a rabbit... removing it...and putting it on a human... I hope that death is nothingness, because if I come back to be a rabbit in a lab, I'm gonna hippity hoppity into a fire pit. At least the surgery made dicks aren't coming from a party who couldn't consent.
I'm just going to facepalm, because I'm severely questioning on if you read the entire article. Ok. Facepalming done. They're not going to "Grow a penis on a rabbit, remove it, and put it on a human". Essentially, they removed a rabbits penis to simulate either an accident where a human has lost his penis, or was born without. Then, they took a penis from another rabbit removed the living cells from it leaving it cartilage, and seeded it with the first rabbit's cells. The cells took over, and they were later able to reattach it. For humans, it would be something similar. Guy lost his penis or was born without, I'm talking biological males since I highly doubt this would work for ftms, they would probably get a penis from an organ donor, remove out all the cells, seed it with the first guy's cells, wait for them to grow, and then reattach it. All the growing is done in the lab, not on anything living.
Honestly I'm scared to read the article. But that gives me way more comfort than rabbit penises being put on humans. Because I read the comment here and went "this link is NSFL". But yeah duly noted. It you don't read the article, you'll imagine people with rabbit dicks. Which is really creepy.
There's nothing "NSFL" about it. No pictures or anything. The guy just talks about the method used. On top of that people having "rabbit dicks" wouldn't happen. Rabbit dna would not mesh with human dna and the human's body would immediately reject it. Using the person's own DNA and tissue helps prevent rejection or the need for immunosuppressant drugs commonly used in transplant patients.
