abolition reports that scientists have created a sheep that’s 15% human, as quantified by cell count. The cells are spread out through the sheep’s body, so we’re miles away from a sheep with feet that look human, but we’re a lot closer to organs that human bodies might accept as human. The goal with this research is to turn animals into “organ factories” where a (physically) sick person could have their own stem cells injected into a sheep foetus, and a few months later they’d have organs that were human enough to work in a transplant.
This is about a process called xenotransplantation, and it’s scary on so many levels. Two prime areas of concern are the release of retroviruses and the animal rights issues. Retroviruses (and this is based on a presentation made at a xenotransplantation seminar I attended 7 years ago, so please don’t take this as gospel) are viruses that were basically linked into our DNA from thousands and thousands of years ago. They don’t hurt us at all and we live in perfect harmony, but if we were to assimilate animal tissue with its own set of retroviruses that we don’t have any experience with, new diseases could emerge. HIV is believed to be an example of a retrovirus that came from another species. As for animal rights concerns, this one is pretty strightforward. The techniques in this article have been in the works for 7 years. While all animals in the study were likely killed for autopsies, making their lives a lot shorter, many were born with organs that didn’t really work, which can’t be fun. Once the procedure is stabilized, after who knows how many lives, we’ve got a situation where animals are being bred specifically for their organs, which isn’t much different than the food system we’ve got today, except for the fact that these animals will be, by definition, partly human.
Aside from some scientists’ weird fetishes, this is mostly happening because there are way fewer organs available for transplant than there are people who need them. Please sign your organ donor cards today, and more importantly, discuss your wishes with your families – doctors aren’t going to rip parts out of your corpse if your family doesn’t want them to, and you won’t be around to argue the point.
