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Professor John FabreThe British Heart Foundation Vandervell Chair of Paediatric Cardiology at the Institute of Child Health.
It's not a pleasant thought, come to think of it, to have an animal's living organ in your body, sustaining your life. Come to think of it too, it's not so pleasant to think that you have another person's organ, a dead person's organ, in your body sustaining life. A bit creepy really, but then death is a bit creepy. Some unfortunate people have to decide whether to die or to have a transplant. That's pretty tough, but there it is. And their doctors have to help them decide. Most people choose to have a transplant, because life is a wonderful thing, and they want to stay alive and be with their friends and families. But nowadays not everyone who chooses to live and wants a transplant is fortunate enough to have one. People are generous. If their loved ones die tragically from strokes or car accidents or things like that, they allow their organs to be used for transplantation. But there aren't enough human donors. To choose life, to want a transplant, to know that it is perfectly possible to be saved from death's grip and yet to fade away into death's clutches, is hard. It is very hard, too, on the families. One day, perhaps soon, it might be possible to have enough organs for transplantation. There is only one way that will be possible - to use animal's organs for those people for whom a human organ is not available. There are some who say that it isn't right, but I disagree. Is a human life more valuable than an animals' life? I think an animal's life is precious. And we need to do all we can to preserve it and to make it as happy and content a life as we can. I think people who are unkind to animals are dreadful. But the question must be faced: a human life, or an animal life? Almost always, I think the human life must be chosen. Why? I don't think we can be very logical about that, but for me it is all about the amount of suffering in the world. Once, at my hospital, I heard of a young dying child comforting his distraught parents, who were overcome at the prospect of the child's approaching death. Just think about that. Try to imagine and measure the suffering. If it were possible, by painlessly killing just one pig, to save not one but several children, would the world be a better place? I think so. The British Heart Foundation |
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