First Genetically Altered Pig Kidney Transplant Recipient Dies

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Facts

  • Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Saturday announced that Rick Slayman, the first person to receive a genetically modified pig kidney transplant, died roughly two months after he underwent the surgery. MGH said there was 'no indication' his death was due to the transplant.1
  • Slayman received a regular kidney transplant in 2018 but had to go back on dialysis last year due to complications. According to his family, the March pig kidney operation, known as a 'xenotransplant,' gave them 'seven more weeks' with him.2
  • Slayman's pig kidney was provided by Cambridge, Mass.-based pharmaceutical company eGenesis, which used the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology to take out harmful pig genes and replace them with human genes.3
  • While the xenotransplant didn't give Slayman the predicted two additional years of kidney function, he was able to walk within days of the surgery and stop taking his three-times-per-week dialysis treatment.4
  • Slayman, who was Black, had end-stage kidney disease, which impacts over 800K in the US annually, including a disproportionate number of Black people. Doctors are trying to use xenotransplants as human kidneys are too scarce to help the nearly 90K patients on the waiting list.1
  • Slayman's surgery came just weeks before the second xenotransplant was administered to 54-year-old Lisa Pisano of New Jersey. Pisano, whose surgery included just one genetic alteration, had also received a mechanical heart transplant the week prior.4

Sources: 1New York Times, 2Guardian, 3ABC News and 4New Atlas.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Womble Bond Dickinson. While more research is needed before xenotransplantation hits the public market, the months of bodily function provided to Slayman mark a historic feat. Legal and ethical factors will also be at play, but the thousands of Americans still waiting for a life-saving transplant can look forward to someday being able to opt into this medical lifeline.
  • Narrative B, as provided by PETA Headlines. Xenotransplants are morally abhorrent and are also dangerous to humans. Innocent animals should not be bred for the sole purpose of extracting their organs to place in human beings. Furthermore, the parasites carried by these animals could end up inserted into a patient, possibly resulting in the next deadly pandemic.

Predictions