Monday, February 28, 2005

Cultured bone offers novel wedding rings



Some will think it a romantic gesture, others will find it grisly. But one willing couple in the UK is about to get the chance, thanks to a government-funded project intended to promote awareness of the issues surrounding tissue engineering.

"It's for people who want to give a bit of their body to each other," says Nikki Stott, a jewellery designer at the Royal College of Art in London. She and her colleague Tobie Kerridge are collaborating with Ian Thomspon, a bioengineer at King's College London.

Cool or what, ofcures only for the most devoted of couples. Could you imagen getting divorced and haveing to ask for it back, "Can I have wedding ring bone back?".

There is one down side, to get the rings they need a bone sample and under the law you have to be having surgery already.

The tricky part is that the lucky couple will have to provide bone cell samples, for which the team will get ethical approval only if both people already need surgery. The most likely scenario is that both will need wisdom teeth pulling, Thompson says.
So if for some reason you and your wife are scheduled for a kidney transplant any time soon, maybe you could volunteer after all if your willing to give her your kidney why not a bit of bone.

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