A month after a pig heart transplant, man works to regain strength with no rejection so far::It’s been a month since a Maryland man became the second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig — and hospital video released Friday shows he’s working hard to recover.
Growing genetically modified pigs with human-like hearts to save human lives? The ethics of that are a bit complicated, but from a STEM perspective it’s a really fascinating idea. What a time to be alive.
There’s nothing ethically wrong with this until we consider eating meat unethical. As a society, we’re nowhere near that.
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You’re breeding and killing an animal for its organs, and some would find that unethical. But you are doing it to save a human life, so it’s a bit of a trolley problem I suppose.
Is it different from breeding and killing an animal to eat it?
I would argue it’s more ethically defendable. There are lots of meatless alternatives to eat. A viable hearts for transplant are scarce and if you need one then you NEED one.
As much as I love animals (more than most people I meet), as a species we must value human life over animal life to some extent. Suffering for corporate exploitation? No, that’s cruel and evil. Minimal suffering in an organism to save a human life? I wish there was a way to keep it from being sentient (so no suffering is felt), but I believe it’s a fair trade for a human life. But yes, we must always strive to minimize the suffering we cause.
Are you vegan?
Edit: ahh the sweet sweet cognitive dissonance lol
I definitely don’t value humans enough to use an animal as an incubator for a heart. It’s cruel and extremely unethical. Nothing will ever convince me otherwise that animals don’t also deserve life just the same as humans.
All animals under all circumstances?
If I’m driving down the road, and a squirrel runs out of nowhere, and I can either hit it or jerk the wheel and fly off the road, I risk that my car will save me, because it will for sure kill the squirrel?
What if you have a child born with a heart issue that will kill it, and there is an option to euthanize a pig that will likely save your child child life, you would let your child die in lieu of the pig?
Yea, I’ma call bullshit on that one. It’s good that you value the lives of all creatures, and you think that you value them equally to humans, but you’re lying to yourself.
You can say whatever you want. I never said it was a popular opinion. Every single time it comes up people say the same things, make the same arguments.
I know it’s hard to believe, but not everyone shares your belief system.
So you’re saying you’d sacrifice your vehicle and life for a squirrel in the road?
I’ve slammed on my brakes before to avoid hitting an animal. What’s so controversial about that?
In this hypothetical situation, you don’t have enough time to stop. 65 mph down the hwy, 30 yards in front of you. One of you has to go. Who’s it gonna be?
Or we can go back to the other example… You would let your child suffer and die from a heart condition instead of giving them a chance to survive, and all that’s needed is the life of a single pig. Keep in mind, pigs live about 15-20 and people live generally 65+ years. So point blank, would you trade your kid’s life for that of a pig’s?
That’s good for your beliefs, but a useless argument for anyone who eats meat. Raising and slaughtering a pig to provide a human a heart is even more useful than raising one for its meat, and chances are that the one raised for its heart was taken much better care of before being killed.
This only really tracks if you’re vegan, which you may be. But if we slaughter a million pigs for meat is that really any different? We already incubate them for bacon, are you really so against this that you’d let a family member die than slaughter a pig for its heart?
He’s not that against it. He’s just posturing online. Very few people, maybe 0.1%, would choose a pig’s life over their grandmother’s. (No I don’t care if your grandma was a dick. Pick another beloved family member or friend.)
Even as a vegan, it’s pretty up in the air imo. It’s well established that if your life saving medication contains animal products, you take the medication. This is more complicated for sure, but an argument can probably be made. I’m not sure what I feel about it.
Real life zombie pigman
We all know he has a gold sword somewhere in his house.
Man, and I thought I had bacon in my heart
Why pig hearts? Is it just a size issue?
Pig organs are approximately the same size and configuration as human ones. They also share a very similar immune system and biochemistry. We also have experience breeding and genetically modifying them. This makes them the easiest option to modify for human use. Still not easy, but easiest.
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The pig is the result of a lot of selective breeding. It’s pure fluke that it matches well enough to use their organs. The wild boar is the ancestor of the pig, and it’s less suited to organ use.
Bird hearts are too fowl.
Unexpected Lol. Well done.
Skill issue, actually
I WAWNT DAYT ONE!
See ? show this to the next person who says ‘ACAB’
I doubt this pig opted-in to the donation. If it wasn’t a choice, it doesn’t make them good.
It’s a joke, the OP is implying that the pig that “donated” the heart was a cop.
I’m aware.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
There is an Onion News Network show about this
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