Although the book "Animal Farm" covers the transformation of pigs into humans (and given the current political situation, I think it deserves a reread alongside "1984"), what we have here is something much more specific, if you will. A team of scientists at the University of California has created a series of pig embryos that include human cells. The plan is, among other things, to explore the potential of organ cultivation. Experts assure that we are still far from that, and that the ethical element will inevitably need to be discussed, but it is a very solid first step.
The Global Organ Shortage
While we are quick and forceful when criticizing certain socio-political aspects, there is one thing in which Spain remains at the top of the list: the number of organ transplants. In total, 2,018 donors enabled more than 4,800 transplants, which translates to 43.4 donors per million people. This speaks of enormous commitment and generosity, but the problem of organ scarcity is worldwide. Artificial substitutes can only go so far and are not viable in all cases. In the United Kingdom, three deaths per day are reported due to the lack of organs. The United States has 76,000 people on its waiting list. What paths does modern medicine explore to combat this? No matter how much some people dislike it, one of them is organ cultivation.
The Human-Pig Hybrid
By cultivation, we refer to its development in animal embryos, effectively creating a hybrid between two species. A group of scientists at the University of California (Davis) announced the creation for the first time of a human-pig hybrid. The work is extremely complex, and more than forty researchers were involved. In simple terms, what is done is to knock out the genes linked to pancreas development in a pig embryo using the CRISPR technique, injecting stem cells in their place to form the necessary tissue, and since there is no immune system, the embryo does not reject the cells. The introduction of the cells is critical in terms of time due to differences in growth rate, and experiments indicate a fairly low ratio (one human cell in 10,000).
Ethical Questions
The development limit of the embryos was 28 days before termination, a time that experts consider sufficient to better understand how human and pig cells combine without triggering an ethical crisis. Besides the logical concerns about animal treatment, what perhaps worries a little more is the possibility that human cells make a contribution to other organs of the pig, including its brain. Would the pig be more or less "human"? How different would the raising of pigs for organ cultivation be compared to raising them for general consumption? These are questions that will have to find a solution, sooner or later.
