Worden

Jayden Worden

Mr. Teixeira, Mrs. Harrison

Junior English

May 6, 2022

Why Should Scientists Continue Research on Xenotransplantation

Animals can be more than just a means for clothes or food, they can actually save lives.

Xenotransplantation is a debated topic that scientists, doctors, and animal rights activists have

been arguing about for a long time. The main debates are about whether xenotransplantation

should be further researched and experimented with because it will improve the future of

research in genetics, it can save lives and it will show scientists more about the body and how it

works. The way it can help in research is by having to modify genetic code to make it compatible

with a person. As well as it can save lives is that there is a long line of people across the world

trying to get organs and will probably not get one any time soon. It also can help scientists find

out more about the body because the process has one species’ cells being introduced to another

species' body and it causes a reaction in the body that can be useful across the animal kingdom.

For those that do not know what xenotransplantation is, here is what it is.

First things first xenotransplantation is a topic that has been worked on and researched

since the 19th century. In the beginning, xenotransplantation was just using animals for blood

transplants and skin grafts but in the 1920s a doctor named Serge Voronoff proposed and

supported the idea to have the “transplantation of slices of chimpanzee testis into aged men

whose “zest for life” was deteriorating, believing that the hormones produced by the testis would
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rejuvenate his patients”(Cooper, Baylor Health Care System). This means that he supported a

surgery to use chimpanzee organs to help his patients regain the bodily functions that they are

losing. “In 1963–1964, when human organs were not available and chronic dialysis was not yet

in use, Reemtsma transplanted chimpanzee kidneys into 13 patients, one of whom returned to

work for almost 9 months before suddenly dying”(Cooper, Baylor Health Care System). Today

with genetic engineering and cloning technologies, scientists now have modified pigs that have

manipulations to protect the organs from the human body's immune system. This means that

scientists are now able to increase the safety of the process and the chance of having fewer to no

people dying of organ failure because of having to wait for an organ and not get one. In short,

xenotransplantation is the process of having an organ transplant where the organ is supplied by

one animal and put in another. Now that the topic is known let’s talk about what the debate is

about.

Now the debate on the field of xenotransplantation covers multiple topics such as ethics

and health risks. It is a big ethical issue because for people to be able to use organs of other

animals safely scientists have to genetically modify them to be more similar to humans. This

causes them to have to live in confinement to make sure that everything goes correctly. As it is,

if it becomes successful then it will end up just like how Dan Lyons said “Should

xenotransplantation ever become a reality, pigs will be turned into spare parts factories,

plundered for their organs”(Medical Ethics). It is a big health risk because xenotransplantation is

a field that little is known about and is filled with dangers. The main dangers are that scientists

could introduce animal diseases to human tissue that could evolve to be able to infect humans.

This danger is further amplified by the fact that some animal diseases are hard to detect and treat,
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especially diseases that scientists do not even know exist. Now that it is known why the debate is

about, it is time to talk about why the continuation of the research should be followed.

The continuation of xenotransplantation should be followed through because of the lives

it could save over the lives lost. Also, when compared to other topics ethically it is not so bad

compared to the number of pigs alone that die each year for food. This is proven by a statement

from PETA “On any given day in the U.S., there are more than 75 million pigs on factory farms,

and 121 million are killed for food each year” (PETA). This shows that over a third of the US

population of pigs are dying to be foodfor people each year and nearly a fourth of the US

population of pigs are on factory farms. Also even though there are diseases that scientists do not

know exist and some that they know are there but are unidentified. They would be able to find

them when they start infecting other species and be able to find a cure or vaccine for them. This

will cause scientists to lower the number of people on the transplant waiting list and increase the

amount of knowledge scientists have in the biomedical sciences field. Now that all the reasons to

continue in this field and to not continue have been stated let's get moving on to what this field

provides in full.

Let's start with how the xenotransplantation field provides new things to research,

explanations of how things work, and how things react. One example of this is how to make

xenotransplantation work, they had to figure out how to genetically engineer/modify the pigs.

The difficulties of having to figure out what genes need to stay and what ones are causing

problems or need to be modified. This is shown by a statement made by The Economist “Several

research groups have experimented with the idea of sticking the DNA for human anti-
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complement proteins into other species” (The Economist). This shows that it took the work of

multiple groups of people worked on how to be able to add human genes to another animal to

test if it is a viable method. A second example of why it should be researched is that this could

help other fields of research like biomedical and pharmaceuticals. It will help the fields by

increasing the knowledge of the reactions some chemicals have with others, it will deepen the

knowledge of how things work. That is just a small amount of what could happen with the

continuation of research in xenotransplantation.

Second thing is that the field provides is that it could save many lives and relieve stress

from lots of people. Xenotransplantation could save lives by providing people in need of organs

the organs that they need almost immediately instead of them having to spend months waiting

and hoping to get an organ. This is shown by an article made by The Economist “Prior to it Mr.

Bennett was diagnosed with terminal heart disease, but was judged too ill to qualify for a human

transplant. Having spent months in a hospital bed with no improvement to his condition, he gave

his consent to the surgery” (The Economist). This shows that even those that are unable to

qualify for transplants people are still able to take part in xenotransplantation. It also relieves

stress on many people because when someone is put on the transplant list it most likely means

that they are in a dangerous situation and that will cause stress for the people that care for them.

This means that if scientists can figure out xenotransplantation then they will be able to severely

decrease the number of people that are on the waiting list, and the number of people that are

stressed from having people they care about in dangerous situations. These are some of the real-

world problems that could be changed by the continuation of research in xenotransplantation.

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The last reason that scientists should continue the research in the field is that it will teach

them how the body works. This is shown by a statement in an article from The Economist “If a

pig's liver is placed in a human patient (as one recently was by surgeons in Los Angeles) it

quickly becomes a swollen, bloody mess. Within minutes of grafting, a patient's antibodies bind

to the donor organ and initiate the process of "hyper-acute" rejection” (The Economist). This

shows that there are still things that scientists do not know about the body like how sensitive the

immune system is and how severe the response could be. Another example is that they are now

learning how to modify the genes of pigs which means that they are on the way to being able to

modify other animals and then eventually humans. This means that while xenotransplantation is

mainly about organ transplants and part replacement it can help discover things from a wide

range of fields. That is the final reason that scientists should continue researching the

xenotransplantation field.

Finally these have shown why scientists should continue the process of researching

xenotransplantation. This paper has shown how xenotransplantation will help save lives and

relieve the stress of some people. It has also shown how it can increase scientists understanding

of how most bodies work whether humans or different animals. It has also shown how the

research will affect other fields than xenotransplantation like the biomedical and pharmaceutical

research fields. This has shown how it will improve future research in multiple fields, save lives,

and teach people more about how the body works. For these reasons the good that could come

out of the continued research far outway the bad that could ever come from it.
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Works Cited

Cooper, David K C. “A Brief History of Cross-Species Organ Transplantation.”

Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center), Baylor Health Care System, Jan. 2012,

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3246856/.

Lyons, Dan. “Animal-to-Human Transplantation Is Dangerous and Immoral.” Medical

Ethics, edited by Laura K. Egendorf, Greenhaven Press, San Diego, CA, 2005. Gale In

Context: Opposing Viewpoints, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/EJ3010053238/OVIC?

u=mlin_s_ocreg&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=f42a99bb. Accessed 9 Mar. 2022.

“Happy News; Xenotransplantation.” The Economist, 15 Jan. 2022, p. 70(US). Gale

OneFile: Business, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A689408785/GPS?

u=mlin_s_ocreg&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=a467794d. Accessed 9 Mar. 2022.

“Pigs: Intelligent Animals Suffering on Farms and in Slaughterhouses.” PETA, 31 Jan.

2021, https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/animals-used-food-factsheets/

pigs-intelligent-animals-suffering-factory-farms-slaughterhouses/#:~:text=Problems

%20With%20Prisonlike%20Farms&text=On%20any%20given%20day%20in,killed

%20for%20food%20each%20year.

“Xeno's Paradox: Organ Transplants.” The Economist, 23 Oct. 1993, p. 106. Gale

OneFile: Business, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A14570021/GPS?

u=mlin_s_ocreg&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=709946b4. Accessed 8 Mar. 2022.