October 12, 2004
Growing Your Own Jacket
The Tissue Culture & Art Project are planning on growing a coat out of combined human and mouse cells.
“One of the most common and somewhat surprising comments we heard was that people were disturbed by our ethics of using living cells to grow living fabric, while the use of leather obtained from animals seems to be accepted without any concern for the well-being of the animals from which the skin has been removed.”
- Ionat Zurr, Tissue Culture & Art Project
via Wired
Despite the fact that these ‘bio-coats’ are clearly not sentient, there is a nagging doubt at the back of my mind about whether we should be doing this type of thing. I completely agree with the argument about leather’s acceptance in comparison, but that’s just down to the long human usage of animal skins - it’s something with which most are generally familiar and comfortable. Maybe it’s the fact that it seems such a trivial application of the technologies involved that disturbs me…
