Labeling someone a pig is a decidedly insulting thing to do. And yet, there are those who would be grateful to be part pig...sounds odd, but it is the latest development in transplantation technology. The idea is known as xenotransplantation, and it means effectively the transplantation of parts from two unrelated species, i.e. piggy to human. (1) To some, the idea is laughable—even disgusting—to others a realistic alternative to dying from the sad lack of donated organs each year, inefficient to save the tens of thousands waiting on lists for the next available heart, kidney, or liver.
The debate reaches beyond the very pressing ethics questions related to xenotransplantation. From medical questions, questions regarding the safety of the receivers of these organs, questions regarding the safety of the entire human race, and questions about a culture and a society that could accept something like this on faith, xenotransplantation is much more complicated than just what is on the surface.
And it is in these questions—in the attacks and defenses for them provided by their critics and supporters alike—that the true societal issues can be addressed. The entire foundation of bioengineering can be analyzed in reference to the modern world’s obsession with obtaining control. We want control over life, over death, over weather, over God, over our own bodies without limit..
I wouldn’t suppose to know what is best for an entire group of people whose only chance for survival is a xenotransplant. It is a decision I hope I never have to make for myself or for a child or dependant in my care. But almost everything about the idea of it seems to be almost a violation of nature.
Nature isn’t perfect. Cancerous cells grow out of control and take over the normal functions of the body. Immune systems aren’t equipped to deal with every pathogen that seeks to invade and dominate. Yet, although it lacks perfection, nature is balanced in its pure form. Nature seeks and finds it’s equilibrium through trial and error, and has always been successful. Even if the changes that it undergoes are fatal, extinction and evolution work slowly together, and until nature created humans, it was a process that went unchallenged.
Common sense and the smallest of coherent children would be able to point out that it is exceedingly odd to put a pig liver, or baboon heart, into a human. But it’s not just a rational logical mind that has problems with this notion; it is the very conscience of the human body with issues against what it knows to be an invader. Logically, scientifically, the human body is going to say no. It deals with these cells through a system of recognition and destruction. Using a device known as compliment (1) it recognizes the surface proteins, marks them, and locks onto specific proteins on the surface.
The Hyperacute rejection of Compliment is an efficient killer, it clogs the blood supply, sometimes calling in phagocytes to finish off the job, or sometimes completing things itself, by bursting the cell membrane. (1) Human cells are spared the wrath of Compliment by the help of proteins situated on the cell membrane, first is MCP, which prevents attachment of Compliment, and the second is DAF, which will destroy any that do manage to secure themselves to the membrane. (1) In any event, it is clear that somehow it was evolutionary clever to have this defense mechanism, in addition to a normal cell-mediated immune system response, which deals with T-cells. It’s doubtful this immune secret weapon is a mistake.
Scientists have found a loophole, however. By replicating those human MCP and DAF proteins, inserting them into pig cells, and cloning pigs with these surface antigens, the autoimmune response is warded off, and the xenotransplant is then accepted. (1) They have effectively tricked the body and it’s defenders.
So, now control over the human body has been accomplished, but there is still the question of whether or not they have control of the unknown. Any time there is an attempt to master a field of knowledge, there is usually the acceptance that there are certain aspects which you cannot possibly know about. Scientists understand this in the area of xenotransplantation. HIV in the African monkeys that they originated in are harmless, sadly not the case with human beings. And although the close contact with humans and pigs in the past has not led to any severe disease epidemics, it is always a possibility that when they are introduced into human systems something could go wrong.
I have not yet touched on the issue of animal rights in this paper, and it’s not one I particularly care to go into. Mammals, especially, have complex nervous systems and I do believe it within their power to suffer, and while I believe the needless suffering of animals is an unnecessary thing, I have never supposed that animals and humans should be placed on the same priority levels. Animal testing in most of it’s forms today, especially dealing with the commercial cosmetics, household products, etc. industry is outdated and there are proven alternatives to such things as the Draize test. However, in medical experimentation practices where it is unrealistic to use human subjects, I am not opposed.
But I do believe a line should be drawn when it comes to this type of research and experimentation. It is usually a dangerous thing to disregard individual suffering, individual life, and individual love to look at only the "Big Picture." It is during these times that human rights are violated, deviant voices are silenced, and the common good gets lost in the collective bad. But if modern society fails to step back from itself objectively and recognize the consequences of their actions now, in the future we could find ourselves in a position where we can’t see where we came from anymore. Looking like small steps everyday, these "advances" are going to amass to a paradigm shift. Not only in the way that not only the sacredness of human life is held, but also the views and respect of everything natural.
People would ask if it would be possible for me to let go of someone that I love when this is an option. I’m not a sacrificing individual, but people die, this is the natural order of things. Yes, I understand that is said with the naiveté—even arrogance, if you will—of someone who has never had to actually a loss of someone other than a grandparent. But I feel I am lucky enough to be able to look at the fear with which my peers and I look at growing old, the superficiality of so much of pop culture, and the desensitizing nature of everything that a good consumer ought to be purchasing—and know that it is not the way things are supposed to be. Pigs and people are different. It sounds like a silly statement, and maybe it is. Perhaps I’m just old fashioned and need to be more pioneering and less afraid. I’m not suggesting that all technology and science needs to come to a halt, but one day the line in the sand is going to disappear forever, if it is not clearly explored now. Nature must be fooled into accepting this new way of doing things; will human beings allowed themselves to be fooled as well?
1. An Answer to the Transplant-Organ Shortage? http:/news3.news.wisc.edu/007transplant/virus1.html
2. Hoke, Franklin. (1995) "As Cross Species Transplantations Move Ahead, Some Scientists Call for Caution, Restraint." The Scientist [online journal] Retrieved March 8, 1999 from http://www.the-scientist.library.upenn.edu/yr1995/august/foreign_950821.html.