Pros And Cons Of Xenotransplantation

Around 8,000 people die every year waiting for an organ transplant because there is a shortage of human organs available. Xenotransplantation, the process of grafting or transplanting cells, tissue, or organs between two different species (non- human to human), could be a solution to increasing the donor list. Xenotransplants have been performed before, but with new technology, like regenerative medicine and stem cells research, emerging during the same time period, much of the attention and the funding support went to the other research because of the more promising future and less ethical problems (Cozzi 288). Some of the general public, scientists, and government agencies believe that with xenotransplants having so many ethical problems

surrounding their study and clinical trials and no promising future, that it would not be a beneficial source of getting organs donors. The dilemma is wither or not xenotransplantation should be considered beneficial again and start more studies and clinical trials or should it still be looked at as a useless study.
Those who have opposing view on xenotransplantation do so because of the lack of producing long term survivors, the risk of contracting a serious disease(s), animal rights issues, and the fact that you would be under the watchful eye of the FDA.
For many years xenotransplants have been performed throughout different countries, one of the more famous transplant stories was done in 1985 at Loma Lind University by Leonard Bailey. Bailey implanted a baboon’s heart into baby Fae, a newborn infant who survived four week after the transplant (Committee 7). Another story includes two patients in the early 1990’s, they both had advanced hepatitis B; Thomas Starzl transplanted both with baboon liver. One of the patients survived 70 days while the other died just 26 short days after getting the transplant, they both died because of an infection due to excessive immunosuppressive (Committee 7). In 1964 a xenotransplant was done by Reemtsma, this is known as one of the longest living transplants trials done. Reemtsma transplanted chimpanzee kidneys into thirteen patients, one of which returned to work for nine months before suddenly dying (Copper 1).
Another argument against xenotransplantation is the risk of contracting a disease from the animal donor.

In the book, “Xenotransplantation: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy” is states that some scientists and government officials argue that there are significant threats of disease transmission form the source animals, threats not only to recipients but to health care professional, families, and public at large (Committee 10). Xenotransplants use many different organs from different animals, some of those animals have diseases that their bodies are immune to; when implanted into a new host, that host’s body may not be immune and could contract a disease from the animal. Many of the anticipated diseases are determined by what organ is being transplanted. The committee on xenograft transplantation states that patients who receive a liver have a high incidence of abdominal; patients who receive a kidney are susceptible to genitourinary tract infection; and patients who receive a lung or heart transplant are predisposed to infections of the pulmonary system (Committee

40).
One of the more controversial objections of xenotransplantation is the animal rights issue.

In Daar’s article, “Ethics of Xenotransplantation: Animal Issues, Consent and Likely Transformation of Transplant Ethics” state that a British reformer Jeremy Bentham who posed two questions when animals are involved in research studies and trials. Bentham asks (1) “The question is not can they reason? Nor can they talk? but can they suffer? And (2) “What insuperable line prevents us from extending moral regard to animals (Daar 975)?” A growing belief is that animals don’t feel pain but they can suffer. Peter Singer, a philosopher believes that much research involving animals does not produce useful results (Committee 73). Experimenters that uses animals do not want to admit animals have rights but studies have proven that animals do suffer. Suffering implies that the animal is self-aware, which means they have some form of intelligence. Daar states, “Singer, Regan, and others have argued that animals do indeed have many rights, even if they are of a lesser magnitude than those of

humans.