Growing genetically modified pigs with human-like hearts to save human lives? The ethics of that are a bit complicated, but from a STEM perspective it's a really fascinating idea. What a time to be alive.
this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023
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There's nothing ethically wrong with this until we consider eating meat unethical. As a society, we're nowhere near that.
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You're breeding and killing an animal for its organs, and some would find that unethical. But you are doing it to save a human life, so it's a bit of a trolley problem I suppose.
It's not less ethical than doing it for meat, is my point.
Especially since a pig raised for organ transplant probably has way better living conditions than a pig raised for meat in an industrial farm.
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That's literally what the meat industry is though. I guess in americanized cultures more of the animal is seen as waste parts rather than food, but those probably become hot dogs anyways.
Anyways, the way I see it meat for eating, and even pig organ transplants are both raising a pig to put parts of its body into a human's body.
Is it different from breeding and killing an animal to eat it?
I would argue it's more ethically defendable. There are lots of meatless alternatives to eat. A viable hearts for transplant are scarce and if you need one then you NEED one.
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As much as I love animals (more than most people I meet), as a species we must value human life over animal life to some extent. Suffering for corporate exploitation? No, that's cruel and evil. Minimal suffering in an organism to save a human life? I wish there was a way to keep it from being sentient (so no suffering is felt), but I believe it's a fair trade for a human life. But yes, we must always strive to minimize the suffering we cause.
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I hope we get to mass manufacturing lab grown hearts quickly. No need to harm sentients.
1 Star Trek replicator please!
Easy just grow cabbages with human-like hearts to appease the vegans.
See ? show this to the next person who says 'ACAB'
I doubt this pig opted-in to the donation. If it wasn't a choice, it doesn't make them good.
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Same guy gonna rush to the doctor after his heart rate hits 200 while staring at some mud
Has he gained any pig-like superpowers so far?
"Spider Pig, Spider Pig, Does whatever a Spider Pig does..."
I'm surprised and mildly disappointed no one else commented this.
Why pig hearts? Is it just a size issue?
Pig organs are approximately the same size and configuration as human ones. They also share a very similar immune system and biochemistry. We also have experience breeding and genetically modifying them. This makes them the easiest option to modify for human use. Still not easy, but easiest.
Oh so animal farm was literal?
Skill issue, actually
I WAWNT DAYT ONE!
South Park certainly didn't hold back on that episode 😂
Man, and I thought I had bacon in my heart
The Maryland team last year performed the world's first transplant of a heart from a genetically altered pig into another dying man.
What is this sentence? The word "another" implies either this man wasn't the first or that a "genetically altered pig" is legally considered dying man.
The man in the first four paragraphs of the article, Lawrence Faucette, is the second dying man to receive a genetically modified pig heart. The first dying man, referred to in your quote, only survived two months but the heart failed, possibly due to a virus in the heart that came from the pig.
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