XENOTRANSPLANTATION > INFORMATION > SHEET 1

"History of Social Responses to Xenotransplantation"

Physicians have been interested in using animal tissue to treat disease for centuries (Lederer, 1995). In the seventeenth century, transfusion of blood from animals into people was abandoned after limited use.

Mid-nineteenth century experiments by English obstetrician James Blundell, transfusing sheep blood to dogs, suggested that human-to-human transplantation would be more effective than animal to human transplantation.
Xenografting received more attention in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There were efforts to treat kidney failure by transplanting animal (sheep, goat, and pig) kidneys into patients. Skin grafting in patients with burns or trauma was attempted using both cadaver skin and skin from a wide variety of animals; bone grafts from living dogs were also undertaken. Gonad transplants from goats and monkeys were tried as a treatment for impotence and lack of vitality.

The role of antibodies and immune system in rejection of either human or animal tissues was not recognised until late 1940s, when modern immunological concepts began to be described. Some surgeons were encouraged by the development of immunosuppressive agents in the late 1950s to work with either kidneys or livers. Ultimately all of these organs were rejected or the patients died of infections that they were unable to combat due to immunosuppression. However, it should be noted that one patient, who received a chimpanzee kidney, survived nine months and died of infection, not organ failure.
The early twentieth century experiments in xenografting prompted considerable public comment and criticism. Surgeons who attempted xenotransplantation experienced intense media scrutiny and attacks from American anti-vivisectionists, who also criticised the short-lived enthusiasm and ambition of surgeons for new techniques. Depictions in popular magazines and films such as the 1932 movie Island of Lost Souls, based upon H. G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau and Disney Studios' cartoon The Mad Doctor suggest cultural unease about the dissolution of the border between animal and human and the medical hubris that produced it.

Further public reaction was engendered by Dr. Leonard Bailey's transplantation of a baboon heart into Baby Fae in 1984. Questions concerning both the scientific basis for this transplantation experiment and the ethics of research with human subjects were raised. At the time of this experiment it was known that the success of transplantations improved when there was major blood group compatibility, compatibility that was lacking in this case. Further, this case raised issues of how to obtain adequate informed consent under life-and-death circumstances, particularly, when a child is involved.

Two points that can be made regarding these survey comments include (1) the role of the media in disseminating information and in shaping the public's understanding and acceptance of the new medical procedures, and (2) the public's concern for animals, which has changed not only over the past few centuries (see above), but also over the last few decades. A new social contract concerning the use of animals in xenotransplantation may have to be negotiated, the details of which will depend on the public's response to the issues.

Reprinted with permission from
Xenotransplantation: Science, Ethics, and Public Policy.
Copyright 1996 by the National Academy of Sciences.
Courtesy of the National Academy Press, Washington D.C.