I love animals. I mean, who doesn’t love going to the zoo and watching Animal Planet? And so you can imagine my disappointment when I found out I could have had a liver from a cute, cuddly animal. Xenotransplantation is the transfer of organs from one species to another. Of course, no successful xenotransplant has ever been performed, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t dream.
The first documented case of xenotransplantation was performed in 1682, when a bone from a dog was used to repair the skull of an injured Russian aristocrat. Supposedly, the surgery was a success but that doesn’t mean its not wrong. After all, dogs are man’s best friends. Clearly dog lovers, the church was angered by the transplant and asked for similar procedures to be prevented in the future. And so, it wasn’t until 1963 that the next documented case of xeontransplantation was performed.
Thomas Starzl, known as the “father of modern transplantation”, performed the first ever liver transplant in 1963. That same year, Starzl also grafted six Baboon kidneys into patients in Denver, Colorado. Due to the lack of human donor organs, Starzl attempted to use our closest relatives. Initially, Starzl thought of using chimpanzees since their organs are of similar size and they have compatible blood types with humans. But chimpanzees are listed as an endangered species and so, Starzl went with the next best thing, baboons. Baboons have a similar body size to humans, but due to their infrequency of blood group O (the universal donor), their long gestational period, and few offspring, they are not ideal candidates. In addition, since primates are so closely related to us, there is an increased risk of disease transmission. For the six patients in 1963, none of this mattered anyway. Due to the lack of successful anti-rejection drugs at the time, the patients only survived between 19 and 98 days after surgery.
Despite the lack of success in transplanting baboon kidneys, doctors did not stop trying. A year later, chimpanzee kidneys were transplanted into 12 patients in New Orleans. Most patients died soon after but one survived nine months with no signs of rejection. This small “success” allowed surgeons to go further, this time transplanting a chimpanzee heart into a 68-year-old male, who only survived for a mere two hours. Five years later, in 1969, while Buzz Aldrin was walking on the moon and Jimi Hendrix was rocking Woodstock, a little child received a liver transplant from a chimpanzee. The child only survived one day.
The most famous xenotransplantation occurred in 1984. The Baby Fae case sparked an international debate on the ethical use of xenotransplantation. Stephanie Fae Beauclair, better known as Baby Fae, was an American infant born in 1984 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. She became the first infant subject of a xenotransplant procedure, receiving the heart of a baboon. The procedure, performed by Leonard L. Bailey at Loma Linda University Medical Center, initially appeared to be successful, but Fae died 21 days later of a kidney infection. Despite the constant failure of using primates in surgery, doctors continued to research the subject. In 1992, the most successful case of xenotransplantation occurred, when a four-drug cocktail assisted a baboon liver transplant. The patient died 71 days later of a brain hemorrhage, which was unrelated to the typical rejection seen in cross-species transplantation.
Recently, scientists have switched gears and decided that pigs would be the best candidates for organ donation. Pigs are dirty animals, wallowing in filth, and so I can’t say I agree with them. They also aren’t kosher but Jewish law does allow them to be used for organ donation*. Scientists believe that due to their genetic distance from humans, pigs are less likely to pass on their diseases to immuno-compromised individuals. They are also readily available and their organs are comparable in size to humans. Therefore in 1992, a pig liver was implanted next to a patient’s liver in order to buy time for a human organ to be found. The patient died 32 hours later. I can’t imagine what your MELD score must be in order to warrant getting a pig’s liver, especially with the fear of swine flu. In fact, the only successful xenotransplantation to ever occur was in 1993 to a man named Adam…The movie was Untamed Heart and Adam was played by Christian Slater.
Aviva and I once had a turtle. We had to feed it live fish, change the water in its tank weekly, and watch while it did absolutely nothing to entertain us. Eventually, the responsibility and burden became so big that we set it free in the Raritan River. That responsibility becomes exponentially greater when the animal you need to take care of is actually inside of you. One day my kids will ask me for a pet. A dog or a cat, hopefully fish. I’m hoping that on that day I’ll be able to tell them that the only way they’ll be getting an animal is if the doctors put one inside their daddy.
*I am not kidding. Organ donation from a pig is a contemporary halachic issue. Rabbi Mordechai Halperin, M.D., the Chief Officer of Medical Ethics for the Israeli Ministry of Health, answers the question: “As long as transgenic pigs are created for medical purposes only, there is no prohibition against performing organ transplants from them.”
The first documented case of xenotransplantation was performed in 1682, when a bone from a dog was used to repair the skull of an injured Russian aristocrat. Supposedly, the surgery was a success but that doesn’t mean its not wrong. After all, dogs are man’s best friends. Clearly dog lovers, the church was angered by the transplant and asked for similar procedures to be prevented in the future. And so, it wasn’t until 1963 that the next documented case of xeontransplantation was performed.
Thomas Starzl, known as the “father of modern transplantation”, performed the first ever liver transplant in 1963. That same year, Starzl also grafted six Baboon kidneys into patients in Denver, Colorado. Due to the lack of human donor organs, Starzl attempted to use our closest relatives. Initially, Starzl thought of using chimpanzees since their organs are of similar size and they have compatible blood types with humans. But chimpanzees are listed as an endangered species and so, Starzl went with the next best thing, baboons. Baboons have a similar body size to humans, but due to their infrequency of blood group O (the universal donor), their long gestational period, and few offspring, they are not ideal candidates. In addition, since primates are so closely related to us, there is an increased risk of disease transmission. For the six patients in 1963, none of this mattered anyway. Due to the lack of successful anti-rejection drugs at the time, the patients only survived between 19 and 98 days after surgery.
Despite the lack of success in transplanting baboon kidneys, doctors did not stop trying. A year later, chimpanzee kidneys were transplanted into 12 patients in New Orleans. Most patients died soon after but one survived nine months with no signs of rejection. This small “success” allowed surgeons to go further, this time transplanting a chimpanzee heart into a 68-year-old male, who only survived for a mere two hours. Five years later, in 1969, while Buzz Aldrin was walking on the moon and Jimi Hendrix was rocking Woodstock, a little child received a liver transplant from a chimpanzee. The child only survived one day.
The most famous xenotransplantation occurred in 1984. The Baby Fae case sparked an international debate on the ethical use of xenotransplantation. Stephanie Fae Beauclair, better known as Baby Fae, was an American infant born in 1984 with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. She became the first infant subject of a xenotransplant procedure, receiving the heart of a baboon. The procedure, performed by Leonard L. Bailey at Loma Linda University Medical Center, initially appeared to be successful, but Fae died 21 days later of a kidney infection. Despite the constant failure of using primates in surgery, doctors continued to research the subject. In 1992, the most successful case of xenotransplantation occurred, when a four-drug cocktail assisted a baboon liver transplant. The patient died 71 days later of a brain hemorrhage, which was unrelated to the typical rejection seen in cross-species transplantation.
Recently, scientists have switched gears and decided that pigs would be the best candidates for organ donation. Pigs are dirty animals, wallowing in filth, and so I can’t say I agree with them. They also aren’t kosher but Jewish law does allow them to be used for organ donation*. Scientists believe that due to their genetic distance from humans, pigs are less likely to pass on their diseases to immuno-compromised individuals. They are also readily available and their organs are comparable in size to humans. Therefore in 1992, a pig liver was implanted next to a patient’s liver in order to buy time for a human organ to be found. The patient died 32 hours later. I can’t imagine what your MELD score must be in order to warrant getting a pig’s liver, especially with the fear of swine flu. In fact, the only successful xenotransplantation to ever occur was in 1993 to a man named Adam…The movie was Untamed Heart and Adam was played by Christian Slater.
Aviva and I once had a turtle. We had to feed it live fish, change the water in its tank weekly, and watch while it did absolutely nothing to entertain us. Eventually, the responsibility and burden became so big that we set it free in the Raritan River. That responsibility becomes exponentially greater when the animal you need to take care of is actually inside of you. One day my kids will ask me for a pet. A dog or a cat, hopefully fish. I’m hoping that on that day I’ll be able to tell them that the only way they’ll be getting an animal is if the doctors put one inside their daddy.
*I am not kidding. Organ donation from a pig is a contemporary halachic issue. Rabbi Mordechai Halperin, M.D., the Chief Officer of Medical Ethics for the Israeli Ministry of Health, answers the question: “As long as transgenic pigs are created for medical purposes only, there is no prohibition against performing organ transplants from them.”