Last week celebrated a new medical breakthrough with the organ transplant of a pig’s kidney to a human being.
The recipient was a 62-year-old, with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, who had already received a human kidney donation which failed. After five years with the first donated organ, the kidney began to fail and sent the patient back to dialysis with end-stage kidney failure.
The process of organ transplantation from animals to humans is a new field in the medical world of exploration. It’s called xenotransplantation.
Prior the transplantation of the kidney, the process has been tried two other times with pig hearts into human recipients.
In the first attempt, the patient lived for two months following the transplant before the organ failed. In the subsequent autopsy, scientist found traces of a virus in the heart known only to infect pigs.
In the second attempt, the patient survived for six weeks. The investigation is still being conducted as scientist attempt to understand the reason for the failure.
Now what interests me is the fact that these organs are not just from “Babe” out on a farmer’s lot. The pigs used in the transplants have been genetically altered. Scientists are splicing pig DNA with human DNA to reduce the chance of the human recipient’s immune system attacking the new organ (which causes the organ to fail).
Currently there are more than 100,000 people awaiting organ transplants in the U.S. according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. It is estimated 17 people will die each day waiting for an organ. Obviously, there is a dire need for the medical world to make advances to address saving lives.
But how long will it take laws to catch up?
In Alabama, the medical world was taken by storm when the state legislature passed a law which basically said human embryos in reproductive clinics were protected and any disposal or damage to the embryos could result in legal actions against the clinics.
This brought up concerns. An example would be a couple who went to the facility and followed the processes. Well, the clinic doesn’t just create one embryo. They must create multiple to ensure at least one viable embryo to result in a child. Let’s say the couple receive their wish and have a successful pregnancy and decide that is the only child they want to add to their family. According to Alabama’s state law, the clinic must keep the other embryos indefinitely or face criminal charges.
Now, I’m not brain surgeon, but even I can see there will be a problem developing concerning frozen storage space for countless embryos. It’s not like the embryos can be used in other couples. The original “donors” or parents have the right to their own DNA. And even if they took the unused embryos, the state could charge them if the embryos were damaged.
So, getting back to our pig/human spliced organs. If we can come up with laws with no clear answer to address human embryos, how long will it take to come up with laws that protect the genetically altered pigs. They have human DNA. Are they protected under some new interpretation? Are we simply taking from one form of a human to give to more “highly involved” human?
Ethically, I think we need to address possible questions before we head down this path of splicing human DNA with other life forms.
H.G Wells may have been on to something in 1896 with “The Island of Dr. Moreau”. We should take a look and learn something from a novel that now seems well ahead of its time.
