:::In the relative far term Star Trek perspective, it would benefit space too. Envisioning far away research bases or start up colonies, there would be a need for access to replacement and/or temporary organs in an environment with a relatively small population providing them. :::

Just organs? Let's go even further: if we do achieve mature molecular nanotechnology (over the next two decades or so), then there's the possibility we'll be able to disassemble an entire human being and store all the data that make up that person. Send that data to a ship or even another planet via radio or laser or whatever, and have assemblers on the ship/planet reassemble the person from common raw materials. It wouldn't be teleportation in seconds, but it would be effectively teleportation in hours, and a hell of a lot cheaper than sending that person to the destination by conventional means.

(Of course, this assumes all aspects of the brain can be captured and replicated, but it's not that big a stretch.)

Just organs? Let's go even further: if we do achieve mature molecular nanotechnology (over the next two decades or so), then there's the possibility we'll be able to disassemble an entire human being and store all the data that make up that person. Send that data to a ship or even another planet via radio or laser or whatever, and have assemblers on the ship/planet reassemble the person from common raw materials. It wouldn't be teleportation in seconds, but it would be effectively teleportation in hours, and a hell of a lot cheaper than sending that person to the destination by conventional means.

(Of course, this assumes all aspects of the brain can be captured and replicated, but it's not that big a stretch.)

When researchers makes more or less temporary scaffolds to seed with former stem cells for making replacement organs, there is a high demand for complicated yet relatively fast 3D manufacturing. (Fast, as the best "market" would be the potentially harmed, sick or otherwise handicapped and/or disfigured person you harvest stem cells of.)

In the relative far term Star Trek perspective, it would benefit space too. Envisioning far away research bases or start up colonies, there would be a need for access to replacement and/or temporary organs in an environment with a relatively small population providing them.

Of course, you could always try to ship accidents back to Earth for best treatment options. But it would certainly make sense if you could alleviate that need as much as possible.

Clearly, this sort of thing has tremendous potential to transform manufacturing in certain areas. You can imagine it being pushed further and further into the so-called micro and nanoscale domains quite readily. I wonder what the practical size limits are for using this technique on larger and larger parts?

There's an "is" missing.

*lets himself out*