[u][b]Medical Technology, Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering[/b][/u]

Medical technology rapidly advanced during the later years of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, especially in the wake of the Heavenfall and the rising influence and proliferation of MegaCorporations. New research initiatives and the breaking of the stranglehold of the pharmaceutical industry and medical sector by these MegaCorps and other newly founded entities and agencies allowed for medicine and medical technologies to be put into the hands of more people, as well as exploring new avenues of approach for treatments. 

As mentioned in the robotics and computing section above, surgery and the field of medicine as a whole has benefitted from and taken advantage of advances in automation. Robotic and hi-tech instruments are more widespread than ever before, and computer controlled surgical tools and robots allow for the most precise and steady surgical procedures ever. 
Alongside this, the technology for prosthetic appendages and artificial replacement body parts has evolved rapidly as well. 
Artificial muscle fibers, miniaturised, streamlined and highly responsive electric motors and micro-scale processors and other essential components have allowed for replacement appendages that have a fluidity and range of movement that virtually matches the original, and even provides some sense of touch. Such advanced prosthetics are rare, and they are not widespread, but the technology is growing and spreading quickly. 
Complex organ replacements, such as eyes and internal organs is still an extremely rare field, with some success in extremely limited and experimental cases with the replacements performed under ideal conditions, but the long-term effectiveness and viability of such replacements is still unknown, and it is an area of great experimentation. 
Enhancement and replacement of other sensory or complex organs is also still experimental. The human brain is the one many are eager to work out ways to interface with and enhance through the use of technology, but as yet there has been no reported or verified success, but many, many rumours and supposed accounts are circulated in the darker corners of the internet. 
Other artificial organ replacements have been more successful - artificial hearts have developed from their early beginnings in the late 20th century and are often used in cases where someone may have rejection issues with a transplant, or otherwise be unsuitable for one. While they can be expected to live a full and healthy life with an artificial heart, it does still - in most cases - place some restrictions on their ability to do some things. 
Similarly, artificial livers and lungs have also been successfully tested, and even used in limited cases, usually along with a firm regiment of medication and other therapies to allow the body to adjust to the new levels of function. 

The continuing research into using technology to not only [i]replace[/i] function of the human body, but to [i]enhance[/i] it also is of great interest, but at the moment lies out of reach by all official accounts, with no confirmed, catalogued and documented programs or experimentation that has been carried out - although, as always, rumours persist. 
Ethical considerations have held back much of this research, and even with the current state of MegaCorporations operating in countries with few restrictions, they have as yet not carried out any research or experimentation into this field. Or at least, not that they have willingly verified and released the information on.

Hand in hand with the idea of enhancement through technology and often working with it is the field of genetic enhancement and biotechnological research. 
Humans have long known the basic building blocks of DNA and had an understanding of how genes are expressed. Breeding animals and plant life for particular traits has been part of human society for centuries, and the depth and extent of this has only grown over the years, with editing genomes for particular traits in crops and other plants for food, medicine, or other such purposes becoming more and more common and even a point of debate, as to how far it should go and how safe it is to do so. 
Much of this reticence and objection disappeared in the wake of the Heavenfall when the need for hardy, productive crops that could grow in any soil became of great importance to feed the world, and those MegaCorporate or other agencies and entities that could provide such crops were in high demand. 
With the opening of borders and removal of restrictions on research in some countries, the outgrowth of this was the development of genetically engineered livestock, as well as other animals, eliminating genetic abnormalities or known issues in particular species; gene-editing certain breeds and species to remove the tendency to develop particular ailments, or reversing damage that decades - or more - of breeding had done. 

Experimentation into the same thing on humans has still been met with a great deal of resistance in many quarters. While it is not [i]illegal[/i] to research human genetic engineering or to perform it in the NCAA where the most relaxed regulations are found, there are still religious and ethical objections. As such, research is slow and often met with a great deal of pushback and debate. Whether genetic engineering and genetic therapies have been utilised and carried out is still a matter of debate, and there has been no official confirmation from anyone. There is a significant amount of evidence that points to the idea that it has been done successfully, but as yet, no official confirmation has been made. 

Similarly, more outlandish and borderline genetic engineering and experimentation is well understood, and has been carried out on animals in laboratory conditions - such as giving mice or rats the bioluminesence genes from deep-sea fish - but such editing on human DNA or even on more complex animals in real-world conditions has not been verified as being carried out even under laboratory conditions, let alone in the real world, despite there being considerable understanding and verified theory around it.