Arnulfo Caballero, “Sin or Science: The Legal and Ethical Implications of Growing Human Organs Inside of Pigs.” Animal & Natural Resource Law Review XVIII: 239-265, August 2022.
- The development of CRISPR eases transgenic engineering – one result is the AquAdvantage salmon.
- CRISPR makes it easier to produce hybrids (like mules) and chimeras (mosaics, not blends, like the Geep)…
- …so we might be able to grow a human organ inside a pig.
- Many Americans are in dire need of a heart or kidney transplant, but do not receive one in a timely fashion. Xenotransplants, using pig organs to place into humans, usually result in the organ being rejected by the human host. Genetically-modified pigs can reduce this rejection problem.
- Chimeric pigs can produce actual human organs; presumably such organs are less likely to be rejected after transplant than are standard xenotransplants.
- Does the Animal Welfare Act apply to pigs used for making human organs?
- The FDA has oversight over CRISPR-related therapeutics, exercised through the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
- GMOS are patentable in the US – but patentability might not extend to complex ge lifeforms (such as minotaurs (p. 257)?) involving human DNA.
- 3D printing to the rescue (of the pigs)? An organ recipient’s own cells could be used to generate the 3D printed organ!
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