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When I was a child, 2023 seemed so very far away, so very “science-fictiony.” Remember that song “In The Year 2025”? Well, we’re here now and many things that we thought were so far out are now part of our everyday lives. Video calls (channel The Jetsons) and portable phones (Remember Get Smart?) are now part of our everyday lives. But what about this headline: “Man Receives Pig Heart Transplant”? Science fiction – or reality?
Before I talk about the heart transplant, I think it’s important to point out that medicine has been using animal parts to save lives for years. In the 1960s, when open heart surgery was still new, surgeons began replacing defective heart valves with mechanical ones. While these worked and kept the patients’ hearts working, they frequently caused another, fatal problem: blood clots. So patients had to take anticoagulants (blood thinners) for the rest of their lives. This led to other complications for many.
Human-donated valves, biologic valves, became an option in a few years and were less risky in terms of blood clots. However, the supply depended on organ donation. Enter the 1970s when surgeons started using tissue valve donations from cows and pigs. Now, both mechanical and biologic valves are used, depending on each patient’s circumstance. Generally, younger patients (under 50) get mechanical valves while those over 70 get biologic ones. For those 50 to 70, the decision is made between the patients and surgeons.
So, given that we are already transplanting animal parts into humans, it stands to reason that research is done for other organs. In 2021, surgeons at NYU Langone Health transplanted genetically engineered pig kidneys into two recently deceased patients who were on ventilators. A third transplant was done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. While the experiments were short, the results gave the researchers a good bit of information to move forward.
Enter the heart transplants
The first pig-to-human heart transplant took place in January of 2022. The patient died two months later, but not to a cause related to the transplant itself. Rather, he contracted a virus from the organ, which killed him. But his death led to new screening protocols that affected the second – and still living – human recipient of a pig heart. Lawrence Faucette, 58 years old, received a genetically modified pig heart this past September. As of October 20, he was still doing well, not showing any signs of organ rejection or infection.
Why would Faucette agree to this highly experimental procedure? He felt he had no choice. Faucette had end-stage heart disease and wasn’t eligible for a human heart transplant. So he went ahead with the surgery. (added just before publication: Sadly, Faucette died yesterday.)
Ethics? Morality?
Some people believe that the prospect of using animals as organ donors is a great leap forward in medical care. Others believe it’s wrong for a few reasons, such as it being “unnatural” to implant an organ from one species to another. But there are also those who object to humans killing animals so humans can survive. Of course, one could argue that we do that when we kill animals for their meat, but something feels different about killing for an organ.
For one, usually most of the animal raised or hunted for food is used as such. The number of organs harvested from an animal is not nearly as high; it’s one heart per animal.
I’m not sure how I feel about it. What do you think? Leave a comment below. Let’s get a conversation started.