Growing human organs for transplants inside pigs or sheep

[Plazma Inferno!]

Last September, in a reversal of earlier policy, the National Institutes of Health announced that it would not support studies involving a radical new approach to generating human organs by growing them inside pigs or sheep (“human-animal chimeras” as NIH said), until it had reviewed the scientific and social implications more closely.
They've ethically charged this effort to incubate organs in farm animals is because it involves adding human cells to animal embryos in ways that could blur the line between species.
Despite this funding ban put in place by NIH, some U.S. research centers continue with attempts to grow human tissue inside pigs and sheep with the goal of creating hearts, livers, or other organs needed for transplants.
http://www.technologyreview.com/new...-chimeras-are-gestating-on-us-research-farms/

What do you think about this way of growing organs? Isn't this type of growing more practical solution that could help tackle the black market of human organs? Or just ethically wrong?

 

[Daecon]

A part of me says "Yay science!" but another part of me says "Ew, icky!".

Until we develop some kind of artificial womb-style technology for growing cloned organs, I guess living animals are the next best thing.

 

[Edont Knoff]

What do you think about this way of growing organs? Isn't this type of growing more practical solution that could help tackle the black market of human organs? Or just ethically wrong?

Since we breed and kill animals quite regularly for making food out of them, I don't see strong ethical problems here, unless the animals suffer more than the other "food" animals.

If this works better than growing organs in glass tubes (there were some nice breakthroughs in that area lately too), I'm all for it. Studies show that the cells need the right environment to grow into a functioning organ, so a full living body, the animal, is very likely better than a glass tube with some nourishment solution.

There is a big need for oragn replacements, so I welcome all sorts of research in this area.

 

[Jeeves]

It's just wrong. So is the abuse of food animals.
There are always [unasked, evaded or unresolved] ethical questions around how far humans go to prolong their own lives, given how they treat one another's.