Chinese Funeral Home 3D Prints Body Parts For Damaged Corpses

3D Printing Body Parts – To Repair Disfigured/Damaged Bodies

According to Chinese state-owned broadcaster China Radio International, a 3D printing body parts has been started by a funeral home in Shanghai in an effort to repair disfigured or damaged bodies. Chinese state-funded news site The Paper noted that the Funeral Parlor, the 3D printing repair service in Longhua comprises of building various layers of material over each other in order to construct a three-dimensional product. The outlet has informed that with the combination of 3D printing, makeup and hair implants it would be capable of reconstructing faces similar at least by 95%.

The Paper noted that destroyed bone structure and damaged body parts could be the consequences of deaths from natural disasters, industrial and traffic accidents. The director of Shanghai’s funeral services centre, Liu Gengming, informed Shanghai Daily that `it would be difficult for relatives to see incomplete faces or bodies of their loved ones when they attend memorial services and makeup does not always repair them adequately. He added that people could utilise the technique in making the corpses of their dear one seem younger or better in looks.

Mend Damaged Bodies with Wax & Sludge

The Paper mentioned that Chinese funeral homes, usually mend disfigured or damaged bodies with materials like wax and sludge. Liu states that while these materials helped in reconstructing the shape of the faces of the bodies, they seem to fail in recreating accurately, the texture of their skin and hair. According to China Radio International, a facial reconstruction would be costing $620 to $776. Hundreds of people in China, in recent years, had died resulting in industrial accidents, several of which were the outcome of negligent enforcement and regulations.

An artificial landslide of accumulated construction waste had collapsed in Shenzhen, southern China, in December, killing around 60 people. Longhua’s venture, assumed to be the first time that a Chinese funeral home has provided 3D printing services as part of Shanghai’s implementation of the 13th Five-Year Plan, of China according to The Paper. The plan, which had been approved last October calls for more improvement in science and technology. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the country had also issued a plan demarcating goals to develop the 3D printing industry of the country, in February 2015.

Opening Avenues in Solving Issues of Disabilities/Shortage of Donor Organ

The new service of Longhua adds to a developing list of methods which scientists seem to be using 3D technology on the human body. A group of scientists and researchers, last month had announced that they achieved a 3D print an organ which could work on humans for the first time, thus opening avenues in solving the issue of disabilities or shortages of donor organ.

 Today, 3D printers have been transforming medicine by constructing replacement of bones, fingers, skin and ears for patients and accident affected victims. 3D printed human tissue, on the cutting edge of this area is known as `bio-printing and is created by utilising modified printer cartridges and extracted cells which have been obtained from the biopsies of the patient. They are grown by using standard techniques which are cultured in a growth medium in dishes, enabling them to increase. The cells can then be loaded in cartridges and printed into layers that tend to fuse together, maturing into tissues.