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.

  • AccidentalLemming@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      There’s nothing ethically wrong with this until we consider eating meat unethical. As a society, we’re nowhere near that.

      If you personally don’t want to use this, you can opt out.

      • AccidentalLemming@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

          • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I’d argue it’s more ethical than meat. You can live a healthy life without meat (provided you’re still getting your protein and B12). You’re kinda dead without a heart.

            I agree, while we’re eating meat, feels strange to call the ethics of pig heart harvesting into question.

        • Grass@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          That’s literally what the meat industry is though. I guess in americanized cultures more of the animal is seen as waste parts rather than food, but those probably become hot dogs anyways.

          Anyways, the way I see it meat for eating, and even pig organ transplants are both raising a pig to put parts of its body into a human’s body.

          • OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            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.

      • sock@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        eating meat is unethical

        capitalism doesnt care for ethics if government banned meat and news articles said moderately disparaging things about it for a week the entirety of the US would likely change their stance

        because everyone is an AI that parrots what (they think) smarter people say

        if you think im wrong lets talk about how people feel about drugs or literally any problem thats sensationalized. you idiots will believe anything if the news says it.

        • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Ethics are not an absolute and are defined by the society in which they occur.

          YOU think it’s unethical. I happen to agree. We are in the minority.

          And all of that is irrelevant to my point, which is that growing animals for organs is not LESS ethical than growing them for meat, and everyone seems fine with that.

    • deaf_fish@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I hope we get to mass manufacturing lab grown hearts quickly. No need to harm sentients.

      1 Star Trek replicator please!

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Same guy gonna rush to the doctor after his heart rate hits 200 while staring at some mud

    • Fr❄stb☃️te@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      “Spider Pig, Spider Pig, Does whatever a Spider Pig does…”

      I’m surprised and mildly disappointed no one else commented this.

  • mightyfoolish@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The Maryland team last year performed the world’s first transplant of a heart from a genetically altered pig into another dying man.

    What is this sentence? The word “another” implies either this man wasn’t the first or that a “genetically altered pig” is legally considered dying man.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The man in the first four paragraphs of the article, Lawrence Faucette, is the second dying man to receive a genetically modified pig heart. The first dying man, referred to in your quote, only survived two months but the heart failed, possibly due to a virus in the heart that came from the pig.