A report published on October 13 by two British animal welfare organizations calls for a halt to xenotransplantation.
The groups, Compassion in World Farming and the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, claim that scientific knowledge of xenotransplantation is lacking and that cross-species transplantation would cause people to stop being fully human and to become chimeras. As an example, they cite the 1992 transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in which a 35-year-old man dying of hepatitis B was given a baboon liver. He died about two months later, and baboon DNA was found in his heart, lungs, kidneys, and lymph notes at autopsy.
The report also discusses the ongoing debate concerning the possibility that animal viruses could infect humans.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said that the report was denounced as a "scare story" by a scientist representing Imutran, the British biotechnology company that hopes to transplant a pig liver into a human. Imutran reiterated its intention to follow guidelines established by the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority, a nonstatutory body created to control the practice of xenotransplantation.
In other recent news from the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife, Cherie, have signed donor cards in response to a new campaign to promote organ donation. The campaign emphasizes the importance of telling your family you want to be a donor-in addition to simply carrying a donor card.
In another effort to increase the pool of donor organs, a transplant coordinator at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham was expected to encourage doctors and nurses at a national children's transplant conference to be sure that the families of dying children are approached about donating the child's organs. "Some intensive care staff believe they cannot approach relatives for organ donations because it is too distressing, but you cannot tell how somebody is feeling inside from how they are reacting on the outside," coordinator Antony Hooker told the BBC.
For Your Information:
BBC story on xenotransplantation report
www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_192000/192468.stmThe 1992 baboon liver transplant
www.upmc.edu/NewsBureau/xentx.htmBBC story on children's organ donation
www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_192000/192609.stmBBC story on Blair participation in campaign
www.news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_196000/196270.stm
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