pig organs

The long wait for organs threatens the ethics of transplant medicine, with some bioethicists calling for the end of the dead donor rule — allowing “death by organ donation” — while a few have gone so far as to argue that cloned fetuses be gestated in artificial wombs for that purpose when the technology is perfected. But an ethical means of easing a very real problem is advancing exponentially — using genetically modified pig organs. Toward that end, early xenotransplantation experiments are already being conducted. A recent success saw a pig kidney last for 217 days in a man with kidney failure, which kept him alive until a human organ could be transplanted: A man has been given a genetically Read More ›

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made big news recently when he declared that he wanted to eliminate federal funding for research on primates and eventually end all government support for animal experimentation. RFK Jr. says he’ll work with federal agencies to wind down animal testing. One can certainly understand his reasons. Animal suffering makes anyone with a conscience flinch in empathetic revulsion.

But scientists do not engage these methodologies out of sadistic purpose. Rather, their goals are to find new medical treatments, cure diseases, and generally reduce human (and animal) suffering. Indeed, without animal research, the many medical and veterinary advances achieved since World War II would have been impossible. That is why we must think about this important moral issue and not just “feel.”

Most animal work involves basic research—investigations about how bodily systems function. Here’s the story of just one such use that resulted in tremendous reduction in human suffering.

Years ago, Dr. Edward Taub hypothesized that brain function could exhibit greater plasticity than then believed. To determine whether he was right, the nerves in monkeys’ forelimbs were severed surgically. Taub’s purpose was to train the animals to reuse their numb forelimbs; research he hoped would prove valuable in ultimately rehabilitating human stroke patients.