Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Bioprinting

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics

  • 80 Accesses

Abstract

Bioprinting is a combination of 3D printing techniques and tissue engineering, using “bioinks” in order to give the tissue the desired spatial orientation. Combining pure engineering techniques with biotechnology offers some technical challenges of effectivity and biocompatibility, as the printed cells tend to be damaged by the printing process. Bioprinting has however the potential to bring organogenesis and other regenerative techniques an important step further. In the best case, it could be used to print whole organs with the original DNA of the recipient which would not only eliminate the necessity of immunosuppression with all its side effects but could also solve allocation problems and other ethical problems and controversies around organ transplantation, freeing the related ethical discussions from the pressure of urgency and emergency. Applying and combining very different techniques, an individual risk assessment for each experiment is inevitable, but in addition to specific risks a broader perspective on the social consequences and potential use and risks of established application ought not to be neglected.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Chia, H. N., & Wu, B. M. (2015). Recent advances in 3D printing of biomaterials. Journal of Biological Engineering, 9, 4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, S. F. (2014). Bioprinting is changing regenerative medicine forever. Stem Cells and Development, 23(Suppl 1), 79–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Derby, B. (2008). Bioprinting: Inkjet printing proteins and hybrid cell-containing materials and structures. Journal of Materials Chemistry, 18, 5717–5721.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gelhaus, P. (2006). Gentherapie und Weltanschauung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gelhaus, P. (2009a). Ethical aspects of tissue engineering. In U. Meyer, T. Meyer, J. Handschel, & H. P. Wiesmann (Eds.), Fundamentals of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (pp. 23–35). Berlin: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gelhaus, P. (2009b). Der Mensch als Gen-Maschine. Zur Reichweite und Geschichte einer Metapher. Zeitschrift für Semiotik, 31(3–4), 397–410.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammerman, M. R., & Cortesini, R. (2004). Organogenesis and tissue engineering. Transplant Immunology, 12, 191–192.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harbaugh, J. T. (2015). Do you own your 3D bioprinted body? Analyzing property issues at the intersection of digital information and biology. American Journal of Law & Medicine, 41(1), 167–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jonas, H. (1979, Engl. 1984). Das Prinzip Verantwortung: Versuch einer Ethik für die technologische Zivilisation. Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp (Engl. The imperative of responsibility: In search of an ethics for the technological age. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Mironov, V., Reis, N., & Derby, B. (2006). Bioprinting: A beginning. Tissue Engineering, 12(4), 631–634.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, S. V., & Atala, A. (2014). 3D bioprinting of tissues and organs. Nature Biotechnology, 32(8), 773–785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nordgren, A. (2004). Moral imagination in tissue engineering research on animal models. Biomaterials, 25, 1723–1734.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norotte, C., Marga, F., Niklason, L., & Forgacs, G. (2009). Scaffold-free vascular tissue engineering using bioprinting. Biomaterials, 30, 5910–5917.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steinbock, B. (2007). Moral status, moral value and human embryos: Implications for stem cell research. In B. Steinbock (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of bioethics (pp. 416–440). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, D. F. (2008). On the mechanisms of biocompatibility. Biomaterials, 29, 2941–2953.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Further Reading

  • Chua, C. K., & Yeong, W. Y. (2015). Bioprinting. Principles and applications. Singapore: World Scientific.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, L. G., Fisher, J. P., & Leung, K. (2015). 3D bioprinting and nanotechnology in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. London: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department for Ethics, History and Philosophy of Medicine, University of Muenster, Von Esmarch Strasse 62, 48149, Muenster, Germany

    Petra Gelhaus

  2. Psychiatric Clinics Motala/Mjölby, Region Östergötland, Motala, Sweden

    Petra Gelhaus

Authors
  1. Petra Gelhaus
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Petra Gelhaus .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Duquesne University Center for Healthcare Ethics, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Henk ten Have

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this entry

Cite this entry

Gelhaus, P. (2015). Bioprinting. In: ten Have, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Bioethics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_59-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05544-2_59-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05544-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation