Would You Have a Pig's Liver in You?

Tweet

A few years ago, I wrote a paper for school about xenotransplantation. For your information, xenotransplantation is the transplantation of organs (as well as cells and tissues) from one species to another, particularly from animals such as pigs and cows, to humans. These organs and tissues are referred to as xenotransplants (or xenografts). The premise here is that there have been cases where shortages in the availability of human organs has prevented medical operations, and that there opened the need for another source of donated organs. Thus developed the process of transplanting animal organs to humans, of course with the knowledge that the new organs would be compatible with the human body. At least, until a human donor is found for the needed organ. There is also the possibility in future research that would allow "foreign" cells (and organs) to be used to treat human illnesses, particularly those which are life-threatening and considered incurable at this time. Of course, as you might have anticipated, there are problems with these processes of "inserting" foreign organs to the human body. Immune rejection is the body's recognition that the new organ is "foreign," meaning that through the genetic codes it has identified that, say, a donated liver came from a pig. The human body would then reject the organ thus rendering it incompatible for medical use. Xenozoonosis is another threat to the patient; it is the transfer of disease from the donor animal to the human, and this is worrisome because animals can possibly carry diseases they are immune to, but the organ recipient is not. But still, it's up in the air whether you would have animals' organs to replace yours in critical situations. If you are in a position where you are in a serious, urgent need of an organ and there are no human organs available, would you allow yourself to be subjected to this process? While I don't think it's a perfect process to treat you, if it means it's the only way to save your life, you would be put in a position where you must seriously consider having a pig's liver for yours (although only temporarily) or a cow's tissue to repair the damage. So, would you have a pig's liver in you, or would you think it too gross that you'd rather suffer the other consequences instead?