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
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    126
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      130
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        24
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        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
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            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
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          18
          ·
          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
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            34
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        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
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          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
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

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

      1 Star Trek replicator please!