Faculty Bibliography

KIE: The 1984 implantation of a baboon heart into Baby Fae, a newborn with a fatal heart defect, has created an enormous controversy over the use of xenografts. There is a serious shortage of human kidneys, hearts, and livers available for transplantation, and the prevailing system for procuring organs through voluntary donation is not efficient. In the few clinical trials of xenografts in which primate kidneys or hearts have been implanted in humans, the grafts failed within three weeks; both animal and clinical trials are still in a highly experimental state. Because of the organ shortage and lack of alternatives for persons with life-threatening organ failure, the author believes that research involving xenografts in human subjects should not be prohibited but should be regulated and conducted under strict ethical protocols. The author briefly discusses the morality of killing animals to obtain their organs.