Xenotransplantation – the transplant of organs from one species into another – is once again making headlines for all of the wrong reasons. And, that’s exactly what the animal research industry wants.
The industry’s media machine is on full display, spinning grotesque tales of “innovation” and “hope”, of vivisectors as bleeding hearts – while the real story remains one of profitable “science” and death, of vivisectors as bleeders of hearts.
Recent articles follow the same misleading playbook we’ve seen before, with outlets like The New York Times painting a ridiculous picture of “pampered” and “coddled” piglets living it up . . . inside sterile laboratories where they’re genetically modified, incarcerated in artificial environments, poked, prodded, and, ultimately, killed.
News coverage giving a nod to the ethical questions at the heart of xenotransplantation quickly and superficially dispose of any feigned concern by emphasizing that the human brutalization of pigs on a massive scale is already accepted – somehow suggesting that the human slaughter of about 150 million pigs per year for “food” renders additional slaughter beyond reproach.
And, news outlets are promoting xenotransplantation as the only hope of humans awaiting organ transplants – conveniently ignoring that xenotransplantation has failed for decades, poses tremendous and largely shadowy risks, and is the least promising of our best available options for humans in need.
Indeed, this is all part of an industry that “achieves demand and profitability by shaping medical preferences through aggressive marketing strategies” – not truth or results.
The industry wants the public to confound its sound bites with fact and call for increased investment in xenotransplantation.
It wants to distract us from the exploitation and killing of nonhuman animals with staged images of cute animals – each one of whom will be “sacrificed” en masse for human profit. This is the reality of xenotransplantation:
[It] is not merely an ethical dilemma that trades life for life but rather requires multiple animals to be used and killed for every human life potentially extended. As Jan Dutkiewicz writes, ‘embracing xenotransplantation involves embracing the commodification, modification, and slaughter of animals on an unknown scale.’
And, it’s set to ramp up. The same corporation that slaughters and mails out parts of some of its specially-bred pigs for human consumption has now received the greenlight from the FDA to start a clinical trial aimed at “pav[ing] the way to routine approved use of pig kidneys”.
For every human who might receive a xenotransplanted organ, how many animals will be bred, experimented on, and killed? How many will suffer and die in the name of human lives that could be saved by ethical, scientifically superior, and human-centered approaches?
We already have solutions: human organ donation, artificial organ development, and lab-grown tissues offer ethical, scientifically-sound, safer, and more effective paths forward.
But these options don’t funnel billions into the animal research industry – and that’s why the industry will fight tooth and nail to keep xenotransplantation at the forefront, highlighting its supposed potential while hiding its perpetual failures and compounding harms.
Join us in forging a better way forward by exposing the industry’s lies, demanding ethical science, and taking direct action to save both human and nonhuman lives.
Save Lives: Become an Organ Donor