Dilemma: Animals as a donor?

Is there support in society for the use of animals as donors?

A first January 7, 2022: American surgeons transplanted a genetically modified pig heart to a 57 year old man. For the first time, a human gets a genetically modified organ from a pig. Whether it works has yet to be seen.

Xenotransplantation has the future. That is the opinion of Patrick Vriens, who received his PhD on this topic on November 9. That was the day before the start of the national debate in the Netherlands about xenotransplantation and the day after the xenotransplantation symposium at the LUMC. In a regular transplant, a sick organ or tissue is replaced by a healthy specimen, and in xenotransplantation to humans, that healthy organ comes from an animal.

Scientists are currently investigating whether it is possible to grow organs, tissues and cells in animals for transplantation to humans. What do the Dutch think about this? The Rathenau Institute and NEMO Kennislink take the initiative to organize a broad social dialogue on this subject.
In this animation, a situation is outlined as it could occur in the distant future. This depicts possible concerns, opportunities and questions about the animal as a donor.

The surgical team examines the organ, which was kept out of the body. 'Breakout': pig kidney placed in humans for the first time. For the first time, a pig kidney was transplanted in a human, without the organ being disposed of immediately. Doctors in New York used a pig kidney whose genes were altered so that they no longer contain the molecule that leads to direct rejection in the human body. NOS