We May Be Able To Grow Human Organs In Animals. Should We?

Seventeen people in the US die /every day/ waiting for an organ transplant, usually a kidney. One approach is to grow extra kidneys in pigs, an idea known as xenotransplantation. We'll look at two recent milestones, as well as the complex ethics of growing animals for organs.

Hosted by: Savannah Geary (they/them)
----------
----------
Huge thanks go to the following Patreon supporters for helping us keep SciShow free for everyone forever: Adam Brainard, Alex Hackman, Ash, Bryan Cloer, charles george, Chris Mackey, Chris Peters, Christoph Schwanke, Christopher R Boucher, Eric Jensen, Harrison Mills, Jaap Westera, Jason A, Saslow, Jeffrey Mckishen, Jeremy Mattern, Kevin Bealer, Matt Curls, Michelle Dove, Piya Shedden, Rizwan Kassim, Sam Lutfi
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?

#SciShow #science #education #learning #complexly
----------

Sources:

Image Sources:

[molly-zxcr]

Arguably financial stability also plays a role in live organ donation. Can you afford to take time off work? Can you afford the medications? Can you afford the hospital stay? Can you afford the care necessary if something goes wrong? I suppose growing in animals would solve that problem

[grkuntzmd]

Just the other day, I read about a country (can't remember which) which uses default opt-in organ donor consent; when a person reaches the age of 21 years old, they are automatically assumed to give consent unless they specifically opt-out. Those who opt-out will get lower transplant list priority if they ever need a transplant. I think this makes things much more equitable.

[firbolg]

I'm actually donating my whole body to science... I have no use for it once I'm dead and I've some relatively rare health issues that baffle doctors on how I'm still alive and healthy at 45 when I should have been dead by 8 or 9 yo. So, in a weird way, I'm excited that they might discover how I made that work... unfortunately, I'll be dead and won't be able to read the report! :D

[margaretgodwyn]

I spent many years working in a dialysis unit and saw both the immense suffering of people with end stage renal disease (note, their family share that suffering) and the incredible relief that comes from not being tied to a machine many hours a week. Transplantation is amazing but it is itself at treatment, not a cure. I fully support on going research as long as there are strong ethical guardrails which are never stronger than the persons enforcing them. However, a lot of kidney failure is preventable by treating the underlying diseases that cause it---hypertension, diabetes, etc. We don't spend nearly enough doing so. Access the medical care is far from universal and there are profound differences in treatment outcomes based on income, race, zip code, etc. If we truly want to spend our money where it will do the most good, it is in prevention.

[jimmorris]

I love how well you covered this subject while giving full acknowledgement to the ethical perspectives throughout

[astralb.]

I recently had to revoke my organ donor consent because I got diagnosed with a genetic disorder. Kind of sad I won't be able to donate. My organs work fine.

[Beryllahawk]

As someone whose husband is on such a waiting list - for a kidney, in fact - this is very interesting. And as someone who can't donate ANY organs now (I am diabetic, they won't even take my plasma), it's even more interesting. I can definitely see why plenty of folks have ethical reservations here. It'd be "better" if we could custom clone kidneys, maybe, but that research has its own multiple can-of-worms problems both scientifically and ethically.

[theboneman]

I have to say I disagree with the religious point, we already do medical procedures such as blood transfusions that some cultures and religions refuse to do because it goes against their beliefs. If they do not wish to do it, that is well and good, but that does not mean it should be unavailable for everybody because of a few

[adnartmadmartm]

The answer to all the hurdles, both technical and ethical, is clear: we need bigger mice!

[stephanieparker]

“ … not likely to stand up and start reciting HAM-let… “ you almost snuck that one past me 😉

[kaptainkaos]

I was so proud of my son recently when I saw his drivers license. On it was the heart symbol denoting an organ donor.

[MungkaeX]

Margaret Atwood predicted this back in 2003.

Sus multiorganifer: informally known as the Pigoon because they were larger than normal pigs to accommodate the multiple sets of human organs grown within for use in transplants.

From Oryx & Crake, an amazing book I strongly recommend.

[lisilein]

Everyone in my country is an organ donor by law. Only children and those who actively decide against it aren't. That fixes a lot of issues as well.

[truhhimself]

another easy option for making more human organs available is to make organ donation opt-out instead of opt-in (like it is over here). if you care about not donating organs you can always opt-out in a quick and easy way, but in reality most people just don't even consider the issue or care much either way.

[missl]

I would very much like a SciShow video about the ethical, legal, and logistical reasons why primates aren't used for these experiments and organ-growing plans, if they're theoretically better.

[tool]

Love the super detailed and longer video for a change

[BrownP]

Honestly, these really only need to actually work in humans in the long-term and not produce any unwanted side effects on either the human patients or the animal donors in the process; any potential ethical issues outside of those criteria will be swiftly left at the door once they become cheap enough to genuinely run China's literal organ harvesting out of business, since they'll be way more ethical regardless than, y'know, *_literal organ harvesting._*

[harvest]

I'd much, MUCH, rather we figure out how to grow organs in a lab or in the patient.

[alien]

I was just talking about this and looking it up earlier today 😂 great timing!

[inkygreen]

I read a (fantastic) YA scifi novel when I was 13 about organ donating. It remains one of my favorite series even over a decade later. And videos like this eerily mimicks some of the ideas and questions posed by the novels, which is really cool. And terrifying.