i was looking at the 2004 HSC question and was unsure on how to answer q24. "JUSTIFY CONTINUED RESEARCH INTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARTIFICIAL BLOOD." Can anyone please explain to me what exactly is artificial blood and how it can be incorporated into this kind of question. I looked at the answers and didn't like the way it was explained.
Thank you in advanced
So artificial blood is an alternative for actual blood, that is 'man-made'; it carries out
some of the functions of real blood. Hemerythrin is an example of artificial blood - it is a protein extracted from sea worms and mixed with water & salt; could lead to 'instant blood' as it is like a
'just add water' thing.So, now that you know what Artificial Blood is, you need to know why it is good (in order to justify the continued research into the development of it). Artificial blood has heaps of benefits:
- It can be
sterilised. Therefore, it can prevent the spread of diseases like HIV - if you sterilise biological blood, it will kill the cells.
- AB doesn't have a membrane, therefore there is no need for cross matching -
'universal blood type'.
- Shelf-life of up to
3 years, unlike biological blood which can only be stored for a few weeks.
- Since it does not contain other human cells, it is safe for use by religious groups that cannot use biological blood due to beliefs.
- Does not cause any side-effects
Now, why do we need to conduct more research?
- the population is rising, but not enough people are donating - more blood is needed!
- Useful in emergencies - no time to test for blood type.
Therefore, to answer this question, you need to, using this information, support the idea of continuing research in AB.