Whilst health in the future will be influenced by the outcomes of current debates on healthcare systems and the increased burden of ageing societies, future scientific developments will pose even more challenging questions about what it is to be human.

  

Organ donation and life-saving transplants could experience radical changes. If, for instance, social networking can't find a donor, then "organ printing" might come to the rescue, creating limbs, organs and skin indistinguishable from the originals.

 

A new generation of drugs is promising to make people smarter and nicer, and technologies which may enhance wellness might make transhumanism a new way of life. With scientists making the first steps toward a machine-controlled human cell - will we be able to control our healing in the future? Whilst the side effects of human enhancement are still unclear, what would it mean if cognitive enhancement became as socially acceptable as morning coffee?

 

Surgeons and pharmaceutical producers will soon get to test new techniques and drugs on virtual patients. How long will it be before every person born has a virtual twin that maintains their medical data? The convergence of ICT and biology may also create a paperless hospital in the future. One extreme is that we evolve into a cyborg community - linking people via chip implants to intelligent machines to create superhumans.

 

 

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