Engineering the Human Body: The Advance of Regenerative Medicine

Directed by

Yoshinori Aoyagi, Atsuki Yamazaki et Toshiyuki Ohno

Produced by

NHK

Documentary, Japan, 2009, 49 min

Stem cells can transform into cells for muscles, organs, and other body parts, therefore they're producing medical marvels. So huge is the promise of regenerative medicine using stem cells that there's a growing demand for stem-cell banks, where people have their own stem cells frozen in case of future illness.

But the use of stem cells has sparked fierce debate. And perhaps the greatest controversy has arisen over savior siblings, children born through genetic selection to provide life-saving stem cells to brothers or sisters who have fatal diseases. More than 200 savior siblings have been born in the US and elsewhere. Each is the result of in vitro fertilization performed to ensure a genetic match between siblings. To what extent should we allow procedures that allow children to be artificially selected before birth?

In this documentary, novelist and physician Takeru Kaido examines the promise of stem-cell-based regenerative medicine and the moral dilemmas presented by technologies that can potentially be used to manufacture human bodies.

Debate with :

• Hideki Tazuke, producer
• Christine Baldeschi, lecturer at University of Evry Val d'Essonne, genodermatosis team leader at I-STEM