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GM Pigs as Sources of Medical Materials

Posted November 03, 2011 7:21 AM

Diabetics, Parkinson's patients, and the blind may soon benefit from genetically modified (GM) pigs. These animals now bear genetic material more easily accepted by the human immune system, so that xenotransplantation of porcine cells, tissues, and organs may prove valuable lifesaving and therapeutic alternatives to mechanical devices or other options. Would you root for near-term clinical trials of GM tissue transplantation from pigs to humans?

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xanasax Power-User Join Date: Dec 2010 Posts: 323 Good Answers: 2	#1 Re: GM Pigs as Sources of Medical Materials 11/04/2011 8:36 AM
	I for one would never allow any porcine material to be placed inside my body, and what do the Jews and the Muslims say about this?????
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kramarat Guru Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Raleigh, NC USA Posts: 13529 Good Answers: 467	#2 In reply to #1 Re: GM Pigs as Sources of Medical Materials 11/05/2011 6:24 AM
	I'm sure this wouldn't be forced on anybody. Personally, if my choice is to be sick or be well, if it makes me better, I don't care what it is that they put in my body, or where it came from. I for one would never allow any porcine material to be placed inside my body I bet you would change your mind about that if you had advanced Parkinsons and the porcine material could correct it.................or maybe not. __________________ Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Franklin
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Tornado Guru Join Date: May 2009 Location: Richland, WA, USA Posts: 21016 Good Answers: 787	#3 Re: GM Pigs as Sources of Medical Materials 11/05/2011 9:48 PM
	I know of a crab boat skipper who had a heart valve replaced with one from a pig. He was enough of a comedian that when he woke up after surgery, his first words were "oink oink"! Had he been blinkered by religious sensibilities, he would have lived a few years less. __________________ In vino veritas; in cervisia carmen; in aqua E. coli.
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