Can immortality be achieved through organ transplantation? Why did this debate arise after the meeting between Putin and Jinping?

News Topical, Digital Desk : Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping discussed the use of biotechnology to achieve immortality during a military parade in Beijing, which has attracted global attention.

Specifically, Putin suggested that repeated organ transplants could keep a person young forever. Julian Koplin, a bioethics lecturer at Monash University in Australia, has released a report in this regard, analyzing the veracity of this claim …

Where will the organs come from

Putin's suggestion that we could achieve immortality through repeated organ transplants is certainly controversial. A natural question is where these organs would come from. Transplantable organs are a scarce medical resource. Using them to sustain the life of an aging dictator would deprive other people in need of life-saving transplants.

Will laboratory-grown organs become an alternative?

If we assume that Putin was perhaps imagining organs grown in a lab using stem cells, this approach would not deprive others of transplants. Although scientists can grow miniature organoids that model some aspects of human tissues, creating full-size transplantable organs is far beyond the reach of current capabilities.

Transplantation is complicated

Even if we hypothetically had access to unlimited replacement organs, our bodies' general resilience decreases as we age. This would make it even harder to recover from repeated transplant surgery. Aging brains also present a major obstacle. We can replace a kidney or liver without changing our identity, but we cannot replace our brains. Whatever remains in our bodies after a brain transplant will not be us.

Other ways to live longer

There may be other ways to increase longevity. Scientists have extended the lifespan of laboratory animals such as monkeys, mice and flies using drugs, genetic modifications, dietary changes and cellular reprogramming. However, it is always challenging to apply animal studies to humans. But there is no evidence to confirm that it is completely impossible to stop aging. 

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