What do others think?

Over the past couple of years there have been a number of community forums to discuss animal-to-human transplantation. These forums were hosted by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the government organisation responsible for looking at ethical considerations with research.

In 2004, after public consultation, they produced a report on the topic of whether or not clinical trials into animal-to-human transplantation therapies should proceed in Australia.

This report details that there is considerable feeling in the community against animal-to-human transplantation. Some of the concerns include:

  • the risk of introducing new diseases from animals to humans,
  • ethical and social concerns about the welfare of the animals used,
  • doubts about the benefits to the patient and whether these outweigh the risks,
  • that there is a need for more regulation before proceeding further,
  • that funds and resources would be better spent in other areas of medicine.

In response to these concerns the Council announced that there should be a five-year moratorium on any clinical research into animal-to-human whole organ transplants in Australia.

The Council has also ruled that non-human primates such as baboons should never be considered as source animals for any future clinical trials of animal-to-human transplantation. It also requested more time to consider other animal-to-human transplantation therapies.

The report that compiles all of the community responses for government can be found at: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/pdf/e55.pdf