Xenotransplantation is a medical procedure that involves the transplanting of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another. Xenotransplantation includes many different forms of animal to human transplants such as the transplanting of organs and cell which may include the transplanting of pigs neural and pancreatic islet cells, tissue transplants and bridging transplants. While the technology providing xenotransplantation gives hope to curing many fatal diseases it also carries potential health risks. The procedure also raises ethical issues about the treatment of animals. In New Zealand research into xenotransplantation has been underway and there are organisations that are for it and some that are against it. In my report I …show more content…
Due to the lack of human organs available for transplants patients have had to wait longer for an organ and can therefore risk dying in the time that they have to wait. However due to xenotransplantation if animal organs and their cells are able to be used instead of humans the time that the patients would have to wait for a suitable organ could be shortened therefore potentially saving their lives. Xenotransplantation can also hold some potential risks such as physical and immunological risks while also involving a risk of disease. Physical issues involve anatomical and chemical differences between the human body and the body of the animal from which the part was donated while immunological issues are the things that could arise due to how the body’s immune system reacts to the presence of an unfamiliar piece of matter being in the body. With the physical issues in terms of cell transplants these physical problems are often fewer however there can be issues in terms of organ transplants. Issues can arise from the donor species differences in things such as organ size, body temperature, body pH and hormones. The range of these differences result in how successful the transplant is going to be. For example pigs blood is a different temperature than humans and due to them walking on all fours their organs are adapted to different positions to those of a human, these differences could cause issues with the transplanting of these parts of a pig into a human. In terms of immunological issues involved the human body in order to project the body from diseases is programmed to destroy foreign organisms such as viruses. Transplants can also be recognised by the body’s immune system as being foreign and therefore could try to destroy