I remember my elementary school science teacher telling us that her mom was the first person to receive a pig valve transplant. Really cool to see this advancement.
David Bennett, 57, died 2 months after the transplantation on March 8 at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Doctors didn't give an exact cause of death, saying only that his condition had begun deteriorating several days earlier. At first the pig heart was functioning, and the Maryland hospital issued periodic updates that Bennett seemed to be slowly recovering. Last month, the hospital released video of him watching the Super Bowl from his hospital bed while working with his physical therapist. Bennett survived significantly longer with the gene-edited pig heart than one of the last milestones in xenotransplantation - when Baby Fae, a dying California infant, lived 21 days with a baboon's heart in 1984.
Yes, it's ethical to offer an experimental procedure when it's the last option. You know it's ethical because the opposite of it would be completely unethical - denying someone a chance to save their own life just because it hadn't been done yet.
If it's ethical to raise animals for meat, then it's also ethical (even more so) to raise them for parts. Some day, we'll grow everything in a tube, but until then - we need this type of research to get us closer to the goals of better human health.
@@mlgklipz2543 I mean ethical or not farming animal have been what made our species survive. You can't really say that it's morally wrong. I agree that we do need a cruel free alternative, maybe someday we really can grow meat in a lab. But saying that raising animal for meat as unethical is really such a first world problem. People in third country like mine could even be considered lucky if they can buy meat daily.
I never would have known my Grandfather without heart transplants. if people have ethical issues around using pigs in this matter I would hope as an alternative they are listed as organs donors as I am.
We saw similar uproar back when human organ donation started, but we got past it and we're mostly okay with it as a society. I just can't stop wondering about the personality traits we sometimes see in human to human transplantation and what we might discover about pigs in the process. Also, we freaking eat pigs! I'd say raising them to save lives is a bit more ethical than that.
@@aprildawnsunshine4326 Regarding your well-made point that we already eat pigs; if anything these pigs live more comfortable lives than their farmed peers. After all, you wouldn't want to use the heart of a pig that has been overfed and mistreated such that it already suffers from heart disease! I'm willing to wager that these donor pigs see far more physical activity, with more consideration given to their overall health.
@@reidmock2165 agreed. And given how much more intelligent they are than horses, dogs or cats* it seems odd that we eat them anyway. *Cats of course we're just guessing because they refuse to be tested. Oh and if you're ever in the Jacksonville/Gainesville FL area look up blackberry pig farm. They're friends that raise their pigs very well and the difference in taste is astonishing. Stupidly I met the pigs and now I can't eat any pork
@@aprildawnsunshine4326 it is not stupid to be in connection with your compassion again. It is basic human decency to treat others with respect. that is called speciesism: arbitrary discrimination against a certain species. It is just like any other "-ism". Society tells you to love dogs and cats but slit the throats of cows, pigs, chickens. All animals including humans have their own life and that life means just as much to them as it does for humans. We maybe be different in many ways, but we sare the same in the ways that matter: we feel pain, joy, fear, love.
If we can do it for bacon I think we can do it for a heart. I mean from a moral stand point which is more important. I don't necessarily agree with the obvious slautering of animals it's just a point of view
This was first done by a doctor from Assam, India in 1997. His name is Dr Dhaniram Baruah, a cardio thoracic surgeon and an inventor. At an international conference in 1995, Dr. Baruah had said that pigs are close to humans in various aspects. He had at the time developed an electric motor-driven artificial biological heart made of ox pericardium that was implanted in a pig. When the pig heart transplant happened, it was revolutionary for that time, 25 years ago. Obviously the patient didn't survive for more than a week because we didn't have advanced genetic engineering back then, neither the knowledge and experience. But the worst part is, the doctor was ostracized instead of being encouraged. Locals didn't understand the procedure and thought the doctor was eccentric
Interesting point about the zoonotic disease transfer, well worth looking into. Ethical arguments against sound pretty thin though imo, hope they don't impede scientific progress on this and lives being saved. Better medicine in other fields means less organs all the time, death rates from a lack of them will only go up.
Exactly, the argument about raising pigs for this when it has a high potential to save lives is a really bad one considering we're already using them as sustenance. The other part about if it's ethical to offer procedures like this to the terminally ill because of desperation is also a bad one... something like this is definitely the better option if the other one is death. Edit: Would've been cool if they had added the necessary genetic material for the cells within the heart to produce the telomerase enzyme like how the cells within a lobster does.
Does anyone have a reason against raising pigs for organ transplants that isn't also relevant to raising pigs for food? We slaughter tons of pigs each day for food. They are both slaughtering pigs to keep people alive, either from starvation or organ failure.
The comments currently added to my question don't answer my original question. Yes, there are people who are against eating pork. However, to ask my question in different words... Let's just pretend raising pigs for food is accepted by anyone, does raising pigs for transplants make any NEW argument against it?
@@tonys.1946 Yes, there are still some issues. These are not the same pigs. The "Organ-Pig" do have to be genetically modified (if I understood correctly). That raises the question if it is okay, for us to do that?.... But in a world where we do not have ANY concerns with eating other animals, then i guess it wouldnt matter what else we would do with them
actually world first pig human heart transplant was done some indian dude in assam around 1997 but later that dude was arrested because the patient later died after 7 days
It's ironic how the same thing that can increase your risk for heart disease from its consumption is also the same thing we need to replace our heart. My grandma use to say a "A radical sore calls for a radical cure"
sound perfectly reasonable to use pigs to grow organs. when you harvest the organs, you get them with a side of bacon, some porkchops and a nice pork roast.
Animal activists that prefer animal survival over human survival may consider never taking meds again, because most of them come from experimentation with animals.
I really don't think that we should put so much effort in prolonging life after the body is ready to go. We should put all of that energy into preventing disease and promoting health education in schools.
It is more of a solution born out of sheer necessity, should terminal patients risk it out as test subjects, and should pigs be breed just to be farmed for organs? no, but like what other options do we have? Unlike, until the day we get to 3D or grow organs in a non living bioreactor, we kind of have to go with this. But yeah i don't think this is the future, it is more of a stopgap in our road towards better options.
I know everyone here in the comment's is talking about the ethics of the breakthrough but my first thought when I saw the title was that episode of south park "Raising the bar". Guess that show predicted that pig heart transplants could be a thing . Tho knowing the show it was likely more for shock value then anything else .
My mom is the most average thinking person i know everything she thinks it's 90% of the time what the vast majority of the population thinks she was disgusted at first when I told her about this but in the span of 3 seconds she said Oh so no more organ harvesting on children in poor countries and after that she was totally okay with this
its hard to find a falacy in seekers dispositions but i found one. there is no reason why we cant eat the rest of the pig afther they took the heart. if you can put a live hart in a human to function we can cook and eat it.
Hey Seeker family!! What about making a video about the superionic earth's core? I saw the video about the superionic ice but it's kind of outdated since that was speaking about it but when this discovery wasn't still found, so I still have the floating question in my mind about how are magnetic fields different from each other since we know now that we share the same superionic core??
Soon we will have pig head goat head and all that in cartoons too... Cool... I like the progression pattern already planted... Next ?? Human body silicon astral impressions ?? When they gonna tell us that .. ??
This Time will tell kinda deal. Maybe we should mandate this and push those don't take these surgeries. And create the Statistics for those who don't take the surgies
Animal rights questions sound like the same questions posed by bacon and porkchops. If there's a market for using the rest of the pig body for meat, I'd say it's at least less wasteful, though.
Once space industry is available and , using 3d printing with gene editing, would allow us to grow them in away that exclusive to the patient and no pig deaths or carbon dioxide etc.produced by the animal.
