Pig Organ Transplants Dangerous & Costly

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Pig Organ Transplants Dangerous & Costly

 

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A damning report on xeno-transplantation buried by government officials,

according to The Observer.

 

The Department of Health commissioned a report two years ago to explore the

legal and ethical implications of xenotransplantation, and to help formulate

a strategy for proceeding with the contentious technology.

 

The independent advisers from the University of Glasgow warn that

xenotransplantation might have to be abandoned in favour of other

alternatives. The report argues that not only has the Government ignored

ethical and public concerns over the technology, but that using it on

patients could prove so dangerous that the Government could face

multi-million pound compensation claims.

 

Professor Sheila McLean and Dr Laura Williamson from the University of

Glasgow spent 16 months putting together the 700-page document.

 

Its conclusions, leaked to The Observer at the end of June 2003, warn that

the NHS and companies involved would be liable for a huge lawsuit if new,

potentially lethal viruses emerge from the practice of putting pig cells and

organs into the human body. And if the disease - which some experts have

warned could create a new HIV-type virus - spreads across the world, the

Government could be sued for breaching international law.

 

Patients would also have to choose between death and agreeing to lifelong

monitoring and not to have unprotected sex or children, in case any disease

could be passed on to another generation.

 

To help facilitate the acceptance of xeno-transplantation, the Government

commissioned three reports into technology. Two of them - on the risk of

disease transmission and the practicalities of transplanting animal organs -

have already been published.

 

The authors of the final, most controversial document were stunned when they

got a letter from a senior government official dated 19 June - explaining it

had decided not to publish their work. It claims the findings in the report

did not meet the needs of the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory

Authority (UKXIRA), which offers expert guidance to the Government on the

issue, and “lacked balance in some areas”.

 

The decision to suppress the report caused outrage among animal welfare

groups, which have expressed deep unease about the ethics of creating ‘organ

farms’.

 

Co-author Williamson fears that failure to publish the report suggests that

UKXIRA will continue to give insufficient attention to the ethical questions

raised.

 

But it is the legal implications arising from the creation of new disease

that appears likely to prove most damaging to the future of

xeno-transplantation.

 

Many experts have voiced concerns that putting pig cells and organs into the

human body could create new viruses. The pig genome contains many porcine

endogenous retroviruses that while dormant in the pig, could prove

infectious for human beings.

 

In fact, although xenotransplantation is banned in Britain and America, the

Government’s regulatory body is still accepting trial applications from

companies.

 

Hope was bolstered by the announcement by PPL Therapeutics - the company

behind Dolly the cloned sheep - that trials of animal-to human transplants

could begin within two years following the birth of cloned piglets

genetically engineered so their organs will not be immediately rejected by

patients. But PPL has sold the xenotransplantation business, and looks

likely to close down after a series of setbacks (see Animal pharm folds,

this series).

 

A Department of Health spokesperson explained that UKXIRA was considering

whether a further review may be necessary, which will also take into account

recent developments.

 

ISIS has issued a comprehensive report back in 2000, Xenotransplantation –

how bad science and big business put the world at risk from viral pandemics

and all its conclusions and warnings have been confirmed.

 

Source:

“Doubts on pig organ transplants ignored” Mark Townsend, The Observer,

Sunday 29 June, 2003

 

 

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RELEVANT LINKS

from the ISIS website

 

(see all articles on the SITE MAP)

 

Xenotransplantation - How Bad Science and Big Business Put the World at Risk

from Viral Pandemics

 

The Rainbow and the Worm - The Physics of Organisms 2nd Edition

 

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