Wednesday October 14
Activists say animal transplants make us less human
LONDON (Reuters) - British animal rights groups suggested Tuesday that
people receiving animal organ transplants could
become less human.
They said cells from the animal organs would spread throughout the
recipient's body, effectively making them a human chimera,
the mythical creature that combines features from different animal
species.
``The human xenotransplantation patient will become a literal chimera,''
Dr Gill Langley, told a news conference on Tuesday to
launch a new report on animal-to-human organ transplants.
``It sounds like scare-mongering, but let me reassure you that the word
chimera is being used by xenotransplant scientists.''
Langley co-authored the report by the British Union for the Abolition of
Vivisection and Compassion in World Farming warning
about the dangers of xenotransplation -- the use of organs, tissues or
cells from a different species.
The report said there was little evidence that pig or monkey organs
could sustain human life and differences in species would
cause serious, even fatal problems.
It cautioned that animals could pass on viruses to humans and said the
research was causing undue suffering to animals. The
report also claimed that there are unknown psychological consequences
that patients will have to deal with.
``We seem to be almost sleepwalking, oblivious to all the dangers,''
said Mike Baker, the chief executive of BUAV, adding that
the technology was neither safe nor effective.
He said the report was designed to highlight the problems and to offer
alternative ways to deal with the shortage of transplant
organs.
The report followed new British guidelines on xenotransplantation
announced in July which the groups said failed to address the
dangers of the technology.
Scientists believe that animal organ transplants may be the only way to
solve the growing shortage of human transplant organs.
Up to 50,000 people in Europe are waiting for human donated organs and
demand is growing by 15 percent each year.
The discovery that pig viruses - called procine endogenous retroviruses
- could be transferred to humans during transplants led
to calls for a moratorium on xenotransplantation research.
Rejection of the animal organ by the recipient's immune system and
concerns about retroviruses are the main problems holdling
back xenotransplantation.
Recent studies presented to the United Kingdom Xenotransplantation
Interim Regulation Authority, a government body, in
August showed that people who received cells from pigs for pancreatic
disorders and Parkinson's disease did not show any
signs of being infected with a pig virus.
(Reuters/Wired)
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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