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Scientists 3D-Print Ovaries To Allow Infertile Mice To Mate and Give Birth (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Infertile mice have given birth to healthy pups after having their fertility restored with ovary implants made with a 3D printer. Researchers created the synthetic ovaries by printing porous scaffolds from a gelatin ink and filling them with follicles, the tiny, fluid-holding sacs that contain immature egg cells. In tests on mice that had one ovary surgically removed, scientists found that the implants hooked up to the blood supply within a week and went on to release eggs naturally through the pores built into the gelatin structures. The work marks a step towards making artificial ovaries for young women whose reproductive systems have been damaged by cancer treatments, leaving them infertile or with hormone imbalances that require them to take regular hormone-boosting drugs. Of seven mice that mated after receiving the artificial ovaries, three gave birth to pups that had developed from eggs released by the implants. The mice fed normally on their mother's milk and went on to have healthy litters of their own later in life. Writing in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists describe how they printed layered lattices of gelatin strips to make the ovary implants. The sizes and positions of the holes in the structures were carefully controlled to hold dozens of follicles and allow blood vessels to connect to the implants. Mature eggs were then released from the implants as happens in normal ovulation.
While I understand where you are coming from and agree with some of your statements (exploitation for profit), there are people in this world that could emotionally benefit if this research leads to applicability in humans.
My wife and I adopted because we couldn't have children naturally (even medically assisted). We received worse news after, when due to a life threatening medical condition, my wife's ovaries had to be surgically removed. Our women in the world face this situation more often than we think (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3913114/).
The ovaries are quite important to the health and wellbeing of women. Hormones get produced, and, if removed early in life, require nasty, side-effect bearing hormone supplement therapy. Early menopause is an unpleasant thing to young women (N.B.: as a man, I cannot put this in proper words - I only experience this as a partner to a woman).
If there were a way to restore my wife's womb and ovaries, we would - even though we wouldn't use this for procreation. It would be for her mental and physical wellbeing.
If I drew a parallel to male conditions, like testicular cancers requiring the removal of a ball or two and researchers found a way to 3-D print a set, people would applaud their efforts. So, you can STFU!
Two, "hard reality" when it comes to biomedical science? "Adopt rather than have a baby" is a weird place to draw the line. "The hard reality is if you get cancer, you should probably just accept there are more than enough people on earth, so just hurry up and die and be glad you get time to make peace with it rather than in a car accident."
Three, TFA specifically points out, in case high school biology fails you, that the ovary does more than just poop out eggs.
The goal of the project is to be able to restore fertility and endocrine health to young cancer patients
A woman in her 20s gets ovarian cancer and is unable to reproduce ever again, that's bad enough, but there's also the added awfulness of menopause. Osteoporosis, heart disease, a bunch of other shit that cancer survivors really shouldn't have to deal with.
Fourth, tissue engineering like this is really in it's infancy. Successfully duplicating an organ should be exciting to you even if you don't happen to have that organ and you aren't convinced the organ's function is really so important. You like your testicles functional? How about having a non-diabetic pancreas? Odds aren't bad you'll have problems with some organ some day and could benefit from a new one. Lessons learned here won't be strictly confined to ovaries, it makes it more likely an organ you'll want to replace will be possible. Plus, what the fuck? Slashdot is news for nerds who are supposed to like technology. Just because it's wet, squishy, and feminine, we've decided we don't like THIS technology?
Fifth, how much time and money were "wasted" on this? From NIH reporter, it looks like $300,000 was spent specifically on this project. About a third of a single tomahawk missile, like the 60 we used to do fuck all in Syria in a vain attempt to boost Trump's ratings. Or less than three times as much as has been raised to make onesies for fully grown manchildren.
In conclusion, leave questions about science and priorities to the adults.