Pig organs approved for human transplants

The use of pig organs for transplantation into humans in Britain was given the go ahead by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics last week (see also p 651). But the council's report on the ethics of animal to human transplantation (xenotransplantation) warns that problems with rejection and the risks of transferring infectious diseases between species have not been adequately dealt with. The council is calling for the government to set up an advisory committee to put controls in place before the first xenotransplantations are carried out in humans.

Professor Albert Weale, chairman of the Nuffield Council's working party and professor of government at the University of Essex, said: “Around 5000 patients are on the waiting list for transplants, but because of …