The artificial blood is created by extracting hemoglobin — a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells — from expired donor blood. It is then encased in a protective shell to create stable, virus-free artificial red blood cells. As these artificial cells have no blood type, there is no need for compatibility testing.
However, that being said: hemoglobin’s just a protein. Recombinant hemoglobin isn’t overly challenging to produce — we do it already. (Currently mostly animal hemoglobin, for vegan meat — but it’s no different to produce human hemoglobin.) We don’t bother with synthesizing human hemoglobin because there’s (until now) no way to go from having a protein to having useful cells serving an erythrocytic function. This research changes that — and so will strongly motivate demand for such production. I would bet money that, 5–10 years out, you’ll be able to buy bags — even drums — of recombinant human hemoglobin from any biopharma supplier.
Nope. They're making _plant_ hemoglobin ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leghemoglobin ) to stay vegan.
Yes, I was also surprised that freaking plants have hemoglobin. But apparently, legume plants use it to create the oxygen-depleted environment for nitrogen fixing bacteria to work.
There's a strong parallel here how pro-life activists view the use of human stem cells.
And the pro-life activists certainly have a similar argument. They're also welcome to holding it, as long as they don't impose it on others.
But as long as they themselves just stay away from stem-cells derived products, then it's their own personal choice. I also have no problems with, for example, Jehovah Witnesses that refuse blood-derived products.
If they have an ethics code, they are welcome to follow it, as long as they don't try to impose it on others.
In this particular case, accommodating even a maximalistic vegan position was not a big deal (just use hemoglobin from plants), so why not do it?
I wonder if the recently dead qualify.
Would cavader blood still be viable, harvested an hour post death?