Nothing seems beyond medical science. As it delves deeper into the human body, the boundaries of medical science get pushed further, often into the realm of the bizarre and fantasy.
We have all sorts of organ transplants, cloning, stem cells, artificial valves, and even an artificial heart known as TAH that keeps you alive until a suitable donor is found.
There was even a head transplant done last year by an Italian surgeon and his Chinese counterparts; but it was done on a human cadaver.
The next stage will be a full head swop between two brain-dead organ donors, and then finally a head transplant on a live human being, making it a Frankenstein reality. It would be revolutionary. So if you lose your head you can have it replaced with another.
But the problem with organ transplants is a shortage of organ donors. Demand outstrips supply, which has given rise to a black market trade in organs, especially kidneys. There are people in poor countries who sell their kidneys to make money. This, in turn, has made the medical field look elsewhere for organs, such as using animals and plastics.
Animals have long been used as guinea pigs by scientists in medical research. They are easy to obtain, and the poor animals cannot say no to a scientists who wants to cut open their bodies and pluck out the kidneys to save the precious life of a human being.
Although there are ethical rules governing animal experimentation, the animals are at the mercy of scientists who want to prolong human life and make it more comfortable and enjoyable for them.
So it was that surgeons in New York decided to transplant a pig’s kidney into a brain-dead patient with kidney failure. It was a relative success. The pig’s kidneys worked. The scientists were elated. They had made a major breakthrough – a pig’s kidney functioned in a human being for a month. The next stage would be to make the kidneys work longer.
A pig’s kidney in a human being is unchartered territory. What if the patient begins to snort and grunt like a pig? You can never tell what could be the after-effects of such groundbreaking medical breakthrough.
* T Markandan, Kloof.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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