Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Saturday announced that Rick Slayman, the first person to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant, died roughly two months after he underwent the surgery. MGH said there was "no indication" his death was due to the transplant.
Slayman received a regular kidney transplant in 2018 but had to go back on dialysis last year due to complications. According to his family, the March pig kidney operation, known as a "xenotransplant," gave them "seven more weeks" with him.
While more research is needed before xenotransplantation hits the public market, the months of bodily function provided to Slayman mark a historic feat. Legal and ethical factors will also be at play, but the thousands of Americans still waiting for a life-saving transplant can look forward to someday being able to opt into this medical lifeline.
Xenotransplants are morally abhorrent and are also dangerous to humans. Innocent animals should not be bred for the sole purpose of extracting their organs to place in human beings. Furthermore, the parasites carried by these animals could end up inserted into a patient, possibly resulting in the next deadly pandemic.