According to the
United Network of Organ Sharing, over 100,000 people are in need of some type
of organ transplant at this moment. Unfortunately, there are far less willing
organ donors than are needed. When one person decided to be an organ donor,
they can save up to eight lives, however, organ donations have many ethical
issues that may arise. Although it is true that a person who is alive can
donate a kidney, bone marrow, or part of a liver; the organs that tend to be
needed the most will come from a person who has recently passed away. An
ethical issue that comes up in these cases is autonomy, who has the autonomy
once the person passes? Families who have lost a loved one may not want to give
up any part of that person, while families of the ones who need the organs are
just waiting and hoping they get the call that an organ is available soon. As a future medical professional, I do
believe that in order to do the most beneficence, organ donations are necessary
and I would urge families to allow the donors organs to be procured and
transplanted. Autonomy is not the only issue with organ donation however; the
biggest problem is simply not having enough organs to give to sick individuals
in order to save their lives.
What if there was a way that we could have more
organs available, so that the wait list would not be at 100,000? A biologist,
Luhan Yang, has been researching the ability to use animal organs to help with
the shortage of human organs that are available for transplant(Witze, 2017).
Yang used CRISPR in order to edit pig genomes in hopes of getting rid of
retrovirus containing pig cells, as she believes this is the biggest set back
of pig-organ transplants (Witze, 2017). Her current research is heading in the
direction to see if the gene editing affects any other organs in the pig and
how long they will live. Yang’s goal with this research is to be able to
bioengineer pigs that will be raised and used just for organ transplant into
humans. This could potentially save millions of lives, but is it ethical? Many
may argue that it is unethical based on the fact that it is animal testing and
non-malfeasant by killing the pigs in order to use the organs. Beside the
animal ethics, it could also be non-malfeasant to humans. The research may only
be able to get so far before human subjects need to be tested. The risks of
transplanting an animal organ into a human have got to be incredibly high, but
in order to figure out if this even works, some transplants would have to
occur. This could potentially cause more harm to the patients that need the
organs, by inducing graft versus host disease or even passing on more lethal
diseases that could have been in the animals. The amount of research that needs
to be done to make such a thing ethical would take decades, but yet again,
could save millions of lives.
Witze, A. (2017, October 04). Luhan Yang strives to make pig
organs safe for human transplants. Retrieved November 14, 2017, from
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/luhan-yang-sn-10-scientists-to-watch?mode=topic&context=69
This is a really interesting post. My first response to your question was, "yeah, why not?" but after further reading I see some logistical problems arising from this. One major question that comes to mind is whether or not the animal organs would adapt to perform the necessary human functions. I personally do not know much about animal anatomy, but after doing a brief search, it appears as though certain organs and vessels in a pig are quite different from that of a human. For instance, a pig liver has five lobes, while a human liver has four. In addition, the blood vessels in pigs are different. For instance, in pigs, the brachiocephalic artery branches into the subclavian artery and a bicarotid trunk, which then branches into the right and left common carotid arteries. Humans do not have a bicarotid trunk, instead, the common carotid artery branches directly from the aorta and only the right common carotid artery originates from the brachiocephalic artery. Pigs also do not have a common iliac artery like humans do. I am curious what these structural differences would mean for transplantation and if it would even be feasible to do with any organ, or if only specific organs are able to be transplanted.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.goshen.edu/academics/biology/pigbook/human-pig-comparisons/
I was blown away by this research and the possibility of humans using pigs organs to replace their failing ones. After I read up on it, I found that it could offer life-saving solutions to extend the life of a person who is on a human transplant list long enough. In several cases, people have died waiting for a transplant, and this could have been prevented by extending their lives by temporarily using animal organs long enough to finally be able to get transplanted with human organs. Before we can fathom this from actually happening, it has created a moral dilemma based on religious beliefs, the disposition to have an animal part in a person’s body and the psychological issues that some individuals would have to overcome before they would get used to the idea of such a procedure.
ReplyDeleteTypically animals have a shorter life span than humans. Does this mean that the organs will die out early, needing multiple replacements over a person's lifetime? According to research, pigs are closely related to humans in terms of biology, the human body still recognizes tissues and organs from these animals as not being natural, causing it to reject. Strong anti-rejection drugs are probably needed when performing xenotransplantation to depress your entire immune system and make sure it does not respond to health threats as it should. In theory, it seems like a solution to shortage of organ donation problem. However, the ethical concerns raises over animal rights and breeding them for the sole purpose of human advancements.
Phillips, T. (n.d.). The Xenotransplantation Ethics Debate: Using Animal Organs for Humans. Retrieved November 18, 2017, from https://www.thebalance.com/the-xenotransplantation-debate-375482
I found this awesomely dense article that specifically describes the various ethical considerations and viewpoints compiled from analytic studies, books, journals, etc. The ethics behind animal tissue donation have been argued for quite some time. Sometimes, tackling a huge ethical topic such as this can be very overwhelming. This article did a great job of breaking down the ethical issues into more concise categories based on origin of the moral viewpoint. For example, as it relates to animal tissue donation, researchers have divided the ethical argument into two overarching categories - deontological and consequentialist. The deontological approach describes anything artificial or manmade as an unethical approach to resolving disease. The consequentialist speaks more to the consequence of the actions of animal tissue donation and can be further divided into two subcategories - anthropocentrism and biocentrism. Anthropocentrism comes from the idea that "humankind has inherent value in moral society" (Manesh, S.B., 2014). This concept may also apply to religious guidelines and beliefs like those of Judaism. In the Jewish religion, a huge component of a Kosher diet is the strict absence of pork. In this case, the proposition of a porcine valve replacement would be out of the question. Additionally, the biocentrism approach highlights all living organisms to have inherent value. From this argument, it would be unethical to genetically modify or dissect animals for medical purposes.
ReplyDeleteI believe that these days the incredible advancements in medical technology should not be considered in a standalone context. Ethical principles and considerations are becoming evermore important. As future medical professionals, the categorization of ethical approaches can be very helpful in deciphering these more broad topics. Similarly, there is value in the understanding of ethical principles as it relates to patient's decisions and the patient-provider relationship. As a medical practitioner, it will be important to understand all barriers to provide quality care in light of ethical considerations.
Thank you for sharing!
Manesh, S. B., Samani, R. O., & Manesh, S. B. (2014). Ethical Issues of Transplanting Organs from Transgenic Animals into Human Beings. Retrieved November 28, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4204195/