81–90 of 122 posts
What happens to other parts from these genetically modified pigs? Can some be used for other transplants? Can rest be eaten?
I don’t think you’d want to eat severely genetically modified pigs though. Who know what kinds of viruses can make the jump to humans in a chimera like that. Ideally those pigs would be kept in some kind of sterile biohazard location and their bodies would ideally be incinerated afterwards.
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I don’t think you’d want to eat severely genetically modified pigs though. Who know what kinds of viruses can make the jump to humans in a chimera like that. Ideally those pigs would be kept in some kind of sterile biohazard location and their bodies would ideally be incinerated afterwards.
Do we also do that to the organ recipient?
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Disagree. The "choose life at any quality of life" ideology causes immense suffering. Ideally in the long run, this is a step in the direction of keeping people alive with a higher quality of life, but that's unlikely to be this first person's experience.
Sure, but is a low quality life worse than oblivion? Even if you're not 25 and healthy and wealthy and happy, I think life is still worth living. Plus, if the suffering experienced by this patient helps cause someone else (or many someones else for centuries to come) to have a higher quality of life, one person's suffering can buy a lot of QALYs. Alternatively if as my mother tells me, I'm doomed to an eternity of un…
As a general rule of thumb, trying to decide someone’s own stream of consciousness is assholeish behavior.
I would like to have more details on the list of genetic modifications needed to make the kidney implantable in an human without being rejected/attacked by the immune system.
It's hard for me to imagine the bravery it takes to sign up for this -- even if you're dying already, something like this is unlikely to result in a peaceful final days on earth (between being a science experiment, the media, optional major traumatic surgery, etc...). The folks undergoing this are incredibly admirable.
Literally magic. The Indian god Ganesha for example has a head of an elephant and we humans are doing something similar.
What an amazing species we are when we are doing something positive.
everything else is just suffering and living with "incompatible" parts.
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I didn’t realize you had to take lifelong immunosuppressants with human organs as well. That makes this indistinguishable, provided it keeps working.
I'm curious, when did you think patients had to take immunosuppressants?
imo only way forward (in broad terms) is taking ones cells, fixing dna/genes, growing cells as neccesary and transplanting them back and having valid cells of your own making. everything else is just suffering and living with "incompatible" parts.
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The alternative is certain death so not a lot to choose from
Disagree. The "choose life at any quality of life" ideology causes immense suffering. Ideally in the long run, this is a step in the direction of keeping people alive with a higher quality of life, but that's unlikely to be this first person's experience.
Nonetheless, I do generally agree with you. I've seen several articles about how doctors die very differently than most people (they often have DNRs and far fewer end-of-life interventions).
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Disagree. The "choose life at any quality of life" ideology causes immense suffering. Ideally in the long run, this is a step in the direction of keeping people alive with a higher quality of life, but that's unlikely to be this first person's experience.
Doctors (and society) should not be encouraging this mentality. But individuals surely have the freedom to think like this and make decisions accordingly.