Amedical team at the University of Maryland Medical Center announced [January 10] that it had accomplished a world-first: Its surgeons had transplanted a heart from a genetically engineered pig into a human.
The groundbreaking procedure raises hopes that animal organs might one day be routinely used for human transplants, which would shorten waiting lists — where thousands of seriously ill people languish and die every year. But it’s also raising a few eyebrows and a lot of questions from bioethicists.
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The transplant was not performed as part of a formal clinical trial, as generally required for experimental treatments. And the immunosuppressive drugs the patient was administered are also novel and have not yet been tested for this use in non-human primates.
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It’s also renewing a debate about pigs and other animals as the source of human organs. Animal rights activists have condemned the surgery as dangerous and unethical. In a statement released [January 10], PETA raised the potential for xenotransplantation to transmit animal viruses to humans and urged researchers to look elsewhere for solutions to organ shortages. “Animals aren’t toolsheds to be raided but complex, intelligent beings,” the organization said.
