Transplant surgeons hope you forget about how the first person receiving a kidney from a pig died two months later. And how the first pig heart recipients died soon too.
They want you, instead, to concentrate on the Alabama woman who has lived a whole month with a GMO (genetically-modified ) pig kidney transplant! Sound the trumpets.
Xenotransplants, of course, raise several philosophical questions. Are animals here on the earth for the benefit of mankind? Can we genetically alter them to suit our purposes? And can we "patent" the GMO products for personal profit?
It's been decades since the debut of the OncoMouse--a rodent genetically modified to carry an "oncogene," making it more susceptible to cancer and better for research--and Monsanto's GMO Roundup Ready Soybeans, both of which were awarded patents.
Franken Animals Seldom Make the News
Many animals created in the lab for human use have flown under the public's radar and the scientists who dreamed them up are probably glad. Consider, for example, goats given a spider gene to produce fibers to be spun into clothing.
How about the "Enviro-Pig" created to excrete 75 percent less phosphorus and the chickens genetically modified to be interferon biofactories? How about cows created with human genes to produce a "better" milk for human babies?
Whether considered animal abuse or the creation of "franken" animals, few support such bio adverturism which is why it is seldom reported.
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