Controversy Surrounding Xenotransplantation

To best explain what diabetes is I chose an article to help me best explain called “The effects of diabetes on the body” written by Ann Pietrangelo. Did you know that diabetes affects your body in 19 ways? Diabetes is a malfunction of the pancreas if it produces too much or too little insulin they both affect the body negatively. An insulin that is not used by your body is stored as fat than converted to energy. If a high amount of sugar left in your body not use is toxic to your body it can form acids called Kenton bodies that help developed

     The audience for this paper is comprised of those readers looking to gain knowledge on the issue of xenotransplantation. This group of people is unaware of the dynamics of the ethical arguments surrounding this current issue. This audience does not have a specific age or belief, reflecting the varied positions of the argument. Due to this hunger for factual information, they do not wish to have someone else’s views imposed on them. Instead, they wish to define and establish a view of their own.      

Xenotransplantation is a controversial medical procedure that has been debated by medical ethicists for many years. Xenotransplantation or Xeno is defined as the short-term transplantation of animal tissues into a human. It has been argued that the procedure is unethical because of the use of animal organs. However, twenty two people die each day waiting for an organ transplant, so we must act soon to save the thousands of lives that are still waiting. Xenotransplantation is a highly debatable procedure and offers a unique solution to the ever growing organ transplant list, making it a viable and worthwhile procedure.

Organ transplantation is a term that most people are familiar with. When a person develops the need for a new organ either due to an accident or disease, they receive a transplant, right? No, that 's not always right. When a person needs a new organ, they usually face a long term struggle that they may never see the end of, at least while they are alive. The demand for transplant organs is a challenging problem that many people are working to solve. Countries all over the world face the organ shortage epidemic, and they all have different laws regarding what can be done to solve it. However, no country has been able to create a successful plan without causing moral and ethical dilemmas.

Diabetes is a condition in which the body is unable to produce or successfully utilize insulin. The most well-known risks associated with the development of diabetes involve poor eating habits, lack of exercise, and being overweight. However, this is not the case for type 1 diabetes and these are not the only significant factors when looking at type 2 diabetes.

Contracting diabetes is one of the health risks I might face in my lifetime. Diabetes is a condition or a metabolic disease that develops when the body is unable to utilize sugars and subsequently results in high levels of glucose in the blood. Much of the food eaten is digested and converted into sugars or glucose, which is to be converted into energy for use by the body. A hormone called insulin produced by the pancreas enables body cells to absorb glucose from the blood. When the pancreas is not able to produce enough insulin or when the body is not able to properly use the insulin, these sugars accumulate in the blood and this is when a person is said to have contracted diabetes. (Kelly, 2015)

Type one diabetes is an autoimmune disease. When a person has type one diabetes the immune system attacks the beta cells that produce insulin. When enough cells are destroyed the body doesn’t produce enough, or any insulin. Without insulin your cells do not absorb the glucose that accumulates in the blood stream. In addition to a spike in the blood sugar, the body is not storing the glucose as glycogen as a reserve.

First let’s establish what diabetes is. Diabetes is a disease that affects how the body uses Glucose, the main type of sugar in the blood. The body takes in and breaks down foods into glucose and others sugars that are needed to fuel the body functions. The Glucose level in the blood rises after a meal and triggers the Pancreas to make the hormone Insulin and release it into the bloodstream. But when it comes to people with diabetes, the body can’t make or respond to insulin properly.

Due to fewer deaths caused by car crashes and gunshots, Canada lacks in its number of organ donors. Hoping for development in the xenotransplantation is our only hope at this point. Although Canada is encouraged to participate in further research regarding the xenotransplantation, alternatives to this must also be looked into. The alternatives vary from further stem cell research, and ways to increase to organ donors.

The main concerns of the Commentary perspective were that although there are a lot of new strategies for cross-breeding; a pressing example would be a live organ donation which links the exchanges between extended families with recipient family members, live donation is only possible for paired organs like a kidney transplant. Beginning the search for other sources of replacement organs has expanded. The main concerns of the Attitudes toward Death perspective was the recognition that all living beings understand that both birth and death and may perhaps serve to relativize the request and/ or need for more organ replacements and that may help us to see what is at stake: on the one hand, there is a possibility of an additional lifespan for a given individual who has a lower quality of life and on the other hand, some intervention in the environment is necessary for all other living beings as well. The main concerns of the Animal Organs perspective were that the companies involved in the development of xenotransplants insisted that they are raising and willing to raise the animals in environments that were sterile as possible. Individual animals are then inspected and went through periods of quarantine before admission to the factory herd. The main concerns of the Risk Assessment perspective were that there may be a slight risk to present and future generations, or there might be tremendous risk to present and future generations, but it is rather hard to determine. The main concerns of the Religious Perspectives paragraph highlighted how successful xenotransplants would be about ensuring the quality of life that they give to recipients, how much human DNA is transferred to the animals and vice versa, and to what degree of suffering the process is understood to entail for all the animals

Many people all over the world have been using animals for their common good whether if its food, transportation, and/or companionship. All of my life, I have owned a canine. Currently, I am a proud owner of a Bichon Frise’, named Rocky. I love my dog with all my heart; However, if I am faced with a scenario where my mother would die of heart failure and my dog was a match for her, I would put my dog to sleep to save her life. Therefore, I support xenotransplantation. Speaking as an animal lover, I understand the sacrifice, pain, and demoralization that one can be faced with to save a loved one.

It all began in the 18th century, “researchers experimented with organ transplantation on animals and humans” (HRSA 1). During these experimentations, errors were made and countless amounts of failures resulted. By the mid- 20th century, successful organ transplants were being accomplished by scientists and physicians. In the year 1954, the “kidney was the first human organ to be transplanted successfully” (UNOS 1). Later on in the 1960’s, more human organ transplant procedures were performed in operating rooms. Some of the many,

Animal protection agencies are questioning the many health problems that come with cloning. As mentioned before, cloning causes many problems in the cloned animal and the host mother. People that are against cloning also bring up the costs of cloning. For example the cloning of a deceased pet may cost upwards of a hundred thousand dollars. However, most of the controversy with cloning is the ethical side of cloning. Many religious groups believe that scientists are playing God by producing unfertilized embryos(Hinrichs). They believe that certain areas, such as the creation of life, should be left up to divine control. People may find that therapeutic cloning could be found unethical and controversial, because of its possible use as alternate

In addition, Allen has found, in the United States alone, 3,000 people die each year waiting to receive an organ (Allen). By this result, researchers are desperately searching for a plan to give patients the organs they need. Researchers started visualizing farm animals, including pigs and thought not only can they be raised for their meat, but for their organs. For instance, studies have shown that an organ of a piglet is compatible to an organ of a child. In the same reason an adult pig’s organs are similarly to an adult organ. Pig transplant may be the answer that surgeons are searching for to be able to give these people the organs they need. Thus, explains the reason why organ transplant from pig should take place. In addition, this would reduce the amount of people who are in need of a new organ and would expand their life

Ethically, Xenotransplantation goes against a lot of different views from people. People link this to why should the animals suffer and be harmed for the sake of keeping someone alive. However, it also raises the view of the suffering family and friends of those who have to suffer an illness like diabetes, where is the balance between animal suffering and human benefit? The main ethical view is why should animals suffer when it isn’t certain if it will benefit humans? However, how are humans meant to learn whether Xenotransplantation works if it isn’t tested. Ethical reasons behind Xenotransplantation plays a huge effect on people’s views and opinions towards whether it should be allowed.