Do You Know the Mutton Man?
For many years a team of researchers led by Esmail Zanjani at the University of Nevada at Reno have been trying to grow ‘humanized sheep’. Their goal is to create sheep that have organs such as the liver that could be transplanted into humans without being rejected.
To get xenograftable organs the scientists inject extracts stem cells from adult bone marrow into a sheep fetus while it is still in the womb. These cells are integrated into the developing fetus. Zanjani’s team has announced it has now made a sheep with roughly fifteen percent human cells. The sheep have a much higher percentage in their livers.
The goal of this form of genetic engineering is laudable. Produce transplantable organs. But the ethical objections are likely to be loud and heated.
The creation of chimeras is not something that has received sufficient attention and public debate. Groups sponsored by the European Union and the President’s Council on Bioethics have taken a look but the public is still not really tracking this issue.
Some animal rights activists are not going to like the idea of creating animals to harvest their parts. Some are going to find the risks associated with carrying animal viruses into humans ethically daunting. And many are going to give ‘mutton men’ are very high score on the ‘yuk’ scale.
Making animal/human hybrids makes sense. But, in this case those with ethical concerns are right. We need some international standards in place before ‘lambination’ becomes a standard part of transplantation.
-Art Caplan
Labels: cloning, reno, sheep, xenotransplantation
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This is a very interesting topic, we already use pig valve in people sucessfully. The point i found interesting is that, standards need to be set for this to happen. We could be exposes to animal viruses that could cross over if not properly done. It looks good, but risky at the same time. Which one is more effective could be a great scientific awakeing, or the opening of pandoras box? i'm glad i'm not in charge of these decisions!?
resectfully, eric
- by egroce,rn on Mar 26, 2007 at 9:56 PM | link
The topic is realy intresting... But the question of cloning is very delicate. I think humanity most be care with it.
- by johny on Mar 31, 2007 at 8:42 PM | link
Wow, this is quite an interesting topic. I think that that there are going to more ethics concerns with this topic then any other and it will take far too long before this type of transplant will be used. I understand that we you pig for human heart valves however, that is minute comparted to using a whole organ from an animal. I think that the research is going at a greater pace with the use of stem cells and that sounds more promising than implanting human stem cells in aminal organs. It is like cutting out the middle man. Also it will leave out the factor of cross contamination of animal viruses.
- by T. Przybysz on Apr 2, 2007 at 6:10 PM | link
This topic is going to have more ethical dilemmas and concerns than any other at this moment in time. I understand that pigs are used in human heart valve replacements; however, that seems minute in comparison to whole animal transplant organs. I think that there are more promising outcomes with stem cell transplants then with human stem cells being implanted in animal fetuses. It would be like cutting out the middle man. In addition, there would not be the concern of cross contamination of animal viruses.
- by T. Przybysz on Apr 2, 2007 at 6:23 PM | link
This truly is an interesting topic. My question is, if this project ever works out who is going to be the guinea pig to test these organs to see if the human body will accept them or reject them? This project is a huge ethical dilema unto itself, let alone the ethics involved with testing the organs in a human donor!! With the shortage of organs for transplantation this sounds like a golden opportunity, but it also could be a baaaad descision!
- by R.Phipps on Apr 7, 2007 at 7:29 AM | link