Ori Shai- Week 1- Part Man, Part Pig

 Ori Shai

AP Lang

1/25/2022

                                                                Part Man, Part Pig

    On January 7th, doctors in Baltimore, Maryland completed a successful heart transplant surgery. This was no ordinary surgery; the man's human heart was replaced with a pig's heart, and it worked. This man was 57 years old, and he had life-threatening heart disease. The pig heart used belonged to a genetically modified pig, and because of the surgery's success, people believe that animal organ transplants will be the future of surgery.

    This was the first successful surgery of a transplant of a pig heart into a human being. The operation was eight hours long on a Friday, and the Patient, David Bennet, was recovering well on Monday according to surgeons. Surgeon Dr. Griffith stated, "[The pig heart] creates the pulse, it creates the pressure, it is his heart" (Rabin), indicating that the new pig heart acts the exact same way as his previous heart. However, the doctors "don't know what tomorrow will bring [them]" since "this has never been done before" (Rabin). So far, everything seems fine with the patient, and there are no differences seen in comparison to normal heart conditions. A big reason for this was that the pig was genetically altered through "gene editing and cloning" (Rabin). These genetic modifications allow for animal organs to be less likely to be rejected by the human body, but is this really what we should be doing?

    Many people are very hopeful and excited to see many more organ transplants like this one in the future in order to save many more lives, but some people feel as if this isn't the right direction we should be heading in. Last year, about 41,000 Americans received an organ transplant, so organ failure is clearly a problem here in America (Rabin). However, we were swapping failing organs with well-working human organs, and this time we swapped a failing heart with a pig's heart for the first time. The difference is that we don't know what will happen; this might be very dangerous, and the consequences might only appear in a year. Genetically modifying the pig might also be a problem as moral and ethical questions arise. Is forcefully genetically altering a species fine according to ethics? Is it harmful to the animal? What are the costs and expenses? What do you think? Is this the future of surgery or just a bad idea?


Source:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/10/health/heart-transplant-pig-bennett.html




Comments

  1. AnonymousJan 27, 2022, 2:15:00 PM

    When I was looking for a post to comment on, this one caught my attention because it is so unique. However, my first thought was that this is pretty strange and is probably risky. I don't think that the world should be moving forward with transplants using animal organs.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJan 28, 2022, 8:07:00 PM

    I think this medical breakthrough could potentially be very important and historic. In the future, using this new transplant technology, there might not exist a transplant list or various remedial treatments like dialysis because there would be enough animal transplant organs ready for use. While it may be risky, I think taking a risk on an organ is better than not having an organ at all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJan 29, 2022, 12:53:00 PM

    Personally, I think this could have a major impact on medicine in the future. However, for now, I think that before doing this consistently, many experiments and years of research should take place as side effects may occur. Furthermore, if the person ends up dying within a day or two, not only did the pig get killed, but so did the person.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJan 30, 2022, 1:36:00 PM

    Personally, I think this is a medical breakthrough and can help save many lives. Yes there are risks, but there are risks in every surgery. Although, I do think having a human organ transplant may be more ideal for humans, unless they have very little time to wait for a human organ.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousFeb 2, 2022, 7:45:00 PM

    I remember hearing things about this kind of transplant being possible because of the similarities between a pig's heart and a human heart. Fascinating!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousFeb 9, 2022, 11:39:00 AM

    I think that this surgery is definitely a breakthrough in medicine. Although I think that the medical community should conduct thorough testing to make sure that this method is safe and effective.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousApr 22, 2022, 9:44:00 AM

    While it may not be ethical, this idea of genetically modifying pig organs to fit the human body is very interesting. If there are no major side effects from the procedure, I can definitely see this being the future of surgery.

    ReplyDelete

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