Le’Quan Price
3/16/12
Ms. Shao
Xenotransplantation
Statistics show that 3,000 people die each year in the United States waiting for organs
and only 34,000 organs are available to 60,000 people which is surely not enough to keep the
waiting patients alive (“Transgenic Organ Transplants”). Transgenic cloning is key to
understanding this topic. Advancements within the field of genetic engineering have resulted in
new methods of farming and breeding. One such method involves the cultivation of plants and
animals that have preferred characteristics or traits. This would lead to organ transplants because
for certain organs they would have to change the organs’ traits because some people’s bodies
might reject the organ but if scientists did that, they would always be perfect matches.
Transgenic cloning provides a way to alter certain genetic traits in an organism and replicate
these characteristics within future generations. The body would reject the organ because of the
molecular makeup and because everyone’s bodies work differently. On account of people dying
everyday waiting for organs, the government should allow the cloning and farming of human
organs within animals and should also increase the funding towards helping the cause.
A person who waits for an organ is more than likely to die before he or she is called from
the waiting list. Considering that “3,000 people die each year in the United States waiting for
organs” (“Transgenic Organ Transplants”). Many peoples’ lives are being wasted just because
the government refuses to use animals as organ donors. Also people die because sometimes the
donor’s organs do not respond to the patients’ bodies. So if scientists were able to create more
organs available for different body types, they would be able to save millions of peoples’ lives
each year. Too many people are dying just waiting for organs. “An average of 18 people die each
day from the lack of available organs for transplant” (Understanding Donation). People are
literally being allowed to die, and every time someone dies there are more being added to the
waiting list which might as well be a death bed. The human population will decrease if the
scientists do not take immediate action.
Animal parts are also being used in other fields of medicine. Scientists and researchers in
Australia have taken healthy cells from pigs and have injected them into people to see if it would
cure their diabetic suffering. People who volunteer for the testing are people who only have Type
1 diabetes, and the process for this testing is still going on.
“The Australian researchers are deliberately including in the trial some patients with
unstable diabetes, whose condition is poorly controlled by insulin treatment. After an
initial two-month evaluation period, the volunteers will continue to be monitored for
months or years. If the transplants are successful, the researchers hope to be able to wean
the subjects off insulin injections” (Pig Cells Treat Diabetes Patients).
This shows our government can use animals in other fields of medicine so people should be able
to use animals’ organs for other medical reasons. Just as this research has opened doors for
diabetes treatment, the use of animal organs could open doors for other medical advances. It
could lead to new sciences experimenting with animals could make us live longer and even
healthier. That goal has very nearly been achieved. “Two different companies have announced
that they have produced litters of cloned miniature pigs lacking one copy of a gene that produces
the GAL molecules. According to them, pigs with transplantable organs could exist within seven
years” (Pig Cells Treat Diabetes Patients). The GAL molecule is the animal protein that causes
rejection in the human body. Since this is the basis of why organ transplantation has such a high
failure rate, the fact that scientists can possibly remove this molecule speaks to the advances that
are happening with this technology. This will ultimately increase the success rate of many
different medical advances.
Even though it currently has a high chance of organ failure, scientists should still test it
out because some cases have been successful and if the cloning system can become more
effective then doctors can transplant even more organs. They have successfully cloned chickens
with no problems at all and are still cloning some and recently they have cloned a sheep which
worked out rather nicely. “After cloning was successfully demonstrated through the production
of Dolly, many other large mammals have been cloned, including horses and bulls”
(Dolly(Sheep)). It shows that the scientists are having a breakthrough with technology and that
there are possibilities of successful cloning. And the next step in that is to make sure they can
clone with organs that have no trouble being transferred into humans. “Cloning of domesticated
animals could be important in the future production of transgenic livestock.”(Dolly (Sheep))
People should fund this so scientists can have more ways to find a successful way to clone
animals extinct or not and also they can clone them so people can have their organs for humans
who are in need of them. The funding for this should be mandatory because it literally is a life
saver for animals becoming extinct and for animals that farmers can farm organs from. Cloning
would be necessary in the process of organ transplants so doctors will not have to use already
living organisms and there could also be a surplus of organs.
Money is also a big factor in organ donating and receiving. A lot of people who need
organs can’t even make the waiting list or even consider to be an organ receiver. Organs aren’t
cheap especially in America; regular kidney transplants usually are about $200,000 and that is
the top needed organ in the world (see Figure 1).
Transplant
30 Days
PreTransplant
Procurement
Hospital Transplant
Admission
Physician
Post Transplant
Admission
ImmunoSuppressant
Total
Heart
$47,200
$80,400
$634,300
$67,700
$137,800
$30,300
$997,900
Single
Lung
$10,300
$73,100
$302,900
$33,500
$117,700
$23,700
$561,200
Lungs
$21,400
$90,300
$458,500
$56,300
$142,600
$28,200
$797,300
Heart-Lung
$56,800
$130,500
$777,700
$81,000
$169,100
$33,300
$1,148,400
Liver
$25,400
$71,000
$316,900
$46,600
$93,900
$23,300
$577,100
Kidney
$17,000
$67,000
$91,200
$18,500
$50,800
$18,200
$262,900
Pancreas
$17,000
$65,000
$108,900
$17,800
$61,400
$19,300
$289,400
Intestine
$55,100
$78,500
$787,900
$104,100
$146,600
$34,600
$120,680
Figure 1. This 2008 report represents Milliman’s triennial summary of estimated U.S. average
costs per member per month PMPM billed charges, and utilization related to the 30 days prior
and 180 days after transplant admission for treatment for organ and tissue transplants.
(Financing A Transplant).
Figure 1 shows how much a usual transplant like that would cost and where the money actually
goes and as depicted in figure one it is quite expensive the average American wouldn’t even be
able to afford this type of help. Yet, in other countries, transplants are significantly less pocket
pulling. For example,
“in China, a kidney transplant operation runs for around $70,000, liver for $160,000, and
heart for $120,000 . Although these prices are still unattainable to the poor, compared to
the fees of the United States, where a kidney transplant may demand $100,000, a liver
$250,000, and a heart $860,000, Chinese prices have made China a major provider of
organs and transplantation surgeries to other countries. In India, a kidney transplant
operation runs for around as low as $5000” (Organ Transplantation).
Furthermore, these costs could decay exponentially if doctors widely used animal organs instead
of actual human organs and donors.Just like in stores when there is a surplus of a certain item in
stock they usually mark down the prices or have a sale on them it would be similar to that.Then
more people would be able to afford them.
Since human organ farming from animals involves cloning, the topic is very
controversial. Some critics believe, “Cloning is a technology that has been developed by farmers
so that they can raise their “best” animals” (Cloning=Cruelty). The cloning of farm animals can
involve great suffering. A cloned embryo has to be implanted into a surrogate mother who
carries it to birth. Cloned embryos tend to be large and can result in painful births that are often
carried out by Caesarean section. Many clones die during pregnancy or birth. “Of those that
survive, a significant proportion die in the early days and weeks of life from problems such as
heart, liver and kidney failure” (Cloning=Cruelty). PETA or other animal groups may have
problems with this because they feel that doctors should not just use animals for their organs and
then kill them. If it is necessary to keep all those people on the waiting list alive, then the
government should allow the use of animals for this purpose. People already use animals for
several reasons that are not as important as saving lives; for example, animal are used for
clothing, food, and testing on consumer products. “Animals rights groups... also assert that
tinkering with an animal’s genetic makeup could harm its immune system and leave it more
vulnerable to disease” (Cloning=Cruelty). This may make it seem that transplanting animal
organs could be very dangerous. Human life is more sacred than animal life which is why
scientists should take that risk with animals genetic makeup. Critics that believe
xenotransplantation is morally wrong are not considering the life of humans that are being taken
everyday.
The government should allow cloning, which would allow doctors to get more organs
from the cloned animals. That would make people survival rate higher and make the organs less
expensive because there would be a surplus in various organs. By doing this they would save lots
of lives and also help out people who are financially unable to get a transplant. Overall,
sacrificing animals for the survival of humans would initially be the right thing to do, despite
what naysayers believe. It needs to be done so the government do not just let people die because
that is what they would be doing if they do not allow this to follow through. The limitation of
allowing xenoplantation may include ecological effects, such as the pollution that crowded
animals may cause. However, Congress needs to approve xenotransplantation so scientists can
pass a milestone in technology. If scientists can get this process 100% efficient and successful,
then other medical research will also come to a close and will have breakthroughs with medicine
and everything that falls under that.
WORKS CITED
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