Old Livers Made New Again

This technique for using unusable or poor quality donor organs begs the question that there are insufficient donor organs available of any quality.

As long as there is an unmet demand for organ donations, it will continue to drive the most heinous of human trafficking crimes.

The alternatives: 3D printing technology and using artificial scaffolds instead of scavenging structure from someone else's organ: do not have these inherent ethical and supply issues. They stand to solve not only a medical but a criminal problem, and are much preferable to an approach that leaves the supply problem unsolved and the criminal motive and potential profit streams intact.

The better alternatives, such as 3D printer tech, are also only a few years away from being ready to go into production.

But, the question I would ask is, would this technique work for rebuilding an otherwise diseased liver? If so, the ethical questions go away.

While I absolutely agree with Arty that human trafficking is the most heinous of crimes, it seems to me that too often, the "ethical" questions surrounding advances in the biological sciences amount to little more than that some group or another is either offended or terrified. If a thing is not wrong in and of itself, such as not involving harm to living persons (to which class I include unborn children), then there is no "ethical" question involved. And indeed, if these biological advances can save lives that might otherwise be cut short, then it is unethical to not proceed!

To answer your question, the technique described is ex vivo. That doesn't mean, however, that it might not eventually lead to the development of the procedure you are thinking of - an in vivo stripping and rebuilding process. That is one very good application that could eventually result from this research.

I didn't suggest that this research is unethical, BTW. I only pointed out that there are more ethical alternatives in a reasonably advanced stage of development.

No offense intended to the well-intentioned persons who are doing this research.

My comment regarding ethics was meant to refer to a general case, not to this specifically.