With approximately 48,000 individuals on the waiting list for organ transplants and only about 4,835 people donating their organs after death each year, there are around 3,000 yearly deaths for those who do not have these organs available to the them (1). Consequently, medicine has turned to an additional yet somewhat controversial source for organ donations: animals. The term xenotransplantation is defined as "the transplantation of living organs, cells or tissue from one species to another..." (2). The obvious and primary benefit of such a procedure is increasing the number of new leases on life that medicine can issue to the thousands waiting for organ transplants. Nevertheless, a variety of ethical issues are raised by such practices, ranging from the treatment of animals to the effects of xenotransplantation in crossing the species border.
Xenotransplantation is by no means a new concept in medicine. Combining parts of different species dates back to Greek lore of over 3,000......
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