In the news
21 Nov 2008
6 June 2007
EU-wide organ donor card will save lab animals too
News of a proposed Europe-wide organ donor card (30 May) has been welcomed by one of Europe’s leading non-animal medical research charities, the Dr Hadwen Trust for Humane Research. As well as saving human lives, it could also dramatically reduce animal experiments for organ transplant, says the charity.
Xenotransplantation is the process of transferring animal tissues or organs of one species into another, including humans. Research to develop xenotransplantation causes suffering to, and wastes the lives of, many laboratory animals, and the Dr Hadwen Trust strongly opposes these experiments.
Every year globally, thousands of animals are used in experiments for xenotransplantation, the purpose of which is to provide a supply of tissue or organs for transplant from animals into humans because of the shortage of human organs.
Says Nicky Gordon, Dr Hadwen Trust Science Officer:
“A Europe-wide human organ donor card scheme offers very real and tangible benefits for people and could also signal an end to the immense animal suffering of xenotransplantation research and that’s to be welcomed too. Thousands of animals, including non-human primates and pigs, are subjected to highly traumatic and lethal experiments in which organs from one species are transplanted into another.
Organ rejection, infection and the toxic effects of immuno-suppressive drugs can have a devastating effect. Increasing the supply of human organs makes more sense as it avoids the very significant human health risks of virus transfer as well as the obvious complications of species differences, which have always made xenotransplants scientifically questionable as well as ethically unacceptable.”
In past experiments, a range of species has been used including pigs, dogs, sheep, rabbits and primates. The Dr Hadwen Trust believes that even if the problem of organ rejection were to be overcome, it remains highly unlikely that animal organs would work effectively in the human body long term. To date, human patients who have received animal organs, have experienced extreme ill health and ultimately death1.
Research into xenotransplantation often involves the production of genetically modified animals, especially pigs. The highly inefficient process of genetic modification requires large numbers of animals, all with the potential to suffer. Female animals are given drugs to cause super-ovulation, their eggs are surgically removed and injected with DNA, or have a gene inactivated. The eggs are re-implanted in surrogate females to develop the offspring to birth – if they survive. Often these animals do not survive until adulthood.
In addition, animals involved in xenotransplantation research may be cloned, kept in sterile and deprived ‘specific pathogen free’ environments, and killed before having their organs removed. Such invasive procedures cause suffering and profound harm to the animals involved. During xenotransplantation research, ‘recipient’ animals (including monkeys) are then used to implant these organs to assess whether the procedure could work in humans. The recipient animals can suffer organ rejection, which causes substantial suffering, and for major organ xenotransplants, rarely live for more than a few weeks.
Experiments on primates as recipients for transgenic pig organs hit the headlines in Britain in 2000 for their shocking cruelty. Maybe the positive step announced today will prevent further experiments causing such extreme animal suffering.
There are also risks to the potential human recipients of these animal tissue and organs. The organs of genetically modified animals are not, and never will be, ‘humanised’ and the risk of rejection has not yet been overcome. Animal organs and tissues can also carry viruses that could cause disease in human recipients. If these viruses then undergo a change in the human body, there are risks that a disease epidemic could be triggered.
An increase in the number of donated human tissues and organs for transplant would prevent extreme animal suffering, as well as offering patients the best option for survival. Would you want a pig’s organ or tissue when you could have a human one?
Notes
1 In 1984 newborn baby “Baby Fae” received a baboon heart in California. Cyclosporine was used and she lived for 20 days. In 1992 a pig liver was implanted next to a patient’s own liver to buy time for a human organ to be found but the patient died after 32 hours.
