Many capabilities in biotechnology are assuredly possible, just not possible today. The tools are too crude, the knowledge of cellular biochemistry still incomplete. The goal at the end of the day is as complete a control as possible over cell and tissue behavior. This naturally implies the ability to grow new organs, even new bodies, for use in medicine to support the aged and the diseased. There is no reason to think it is actually impossible just because it is presently impossible.
Research proceeds incrementally. We can look at the well-funded, very mainstream efforts to produce new organs for transplantation, a goal that remains impossible as a practical concern at the present time, and see the various stages of evolution of the process. At each stage, there must be some product that can sustain commercial efforts and attract further funding for research and development. So on the road to tissue engineering of new organs, we can see the first steps as the production of organoids: finding recipes that allow the self-assembly of pseudo-tissues that recapture some of the features of the real thing. Organoids exist for many tissue types, across a spectrum spanning cells in a dish to actual tissue with a fully developed extracellular matrix, are the basis for potential regenerative therapies via transplantation to support a failing organ, and are widely used in research.
We can look at the far less advanced efforts that could ultimately lead to the generation of new bodies, such as the work of R3 Bio and Kind Biotechnology, and see that this part of the field has similar early stage goals. In this case, it is the production of pseudo-embryos lacking brains and other features, collections of organs working together much as they do in a real embryo, and which can be used in research and development, or to grow small amounts of tissues for transplantation. They represent a step beyond organoids in terms of recreating something more relevant to a real tissue, can potentially replace some animal studies, and presumably will find a market that can support further evolution of the technology. As is the case for organoids, this first step isn't a simple matter; a great deal of work and discovery is required to obtain a useful result.
The production of pseudo-embryos lacking brains and other features is unlike other human organoid work in that it will likely rouse some degree of reflexive opposition. Thus working with human materials will probably remain off the table until the world at large has had a chance to digest the existence and use of mouse and non-human primate pseudo-embryos. A sizable reduction in the number and scope of animal studies is a noble goal, but the collective laity is not rational about the progression of medicine and biotechnology. The spirit that drove historical popular opposition to autopsies remains alive and well, as demonstrated by the relatively recent opposition to embryonic stem cell research; it will no doubt rouse itself again for the use of human pseudo-embryos in research, once awareness spreads, spurred on by a journalistic profession that has become a cog in an outrage machine, no matter how many animals are spared.
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