Monsters in the making?

THE EDITOR: In Mary Shelly’s 202-year-old book, Frankenstein, the ambitious doctor attempts to demonstrate his God-like ability to rise above the acceptable norms of life and death by using body parts from exhumed bodies to bring a recently dead man back to life. In doing so he created a monstrosity of epic proportions that wreaked havoc wherever it went.

Fast forward to January 2022: a patient is being prepped for a new heart; alongside the operating table is a live pig strapped to a gurney also being prepared so that his heart can be harvested for implantation into the patient. The pig’s screams of protest as he writhes against the restraints are largely ignored as surgeons cut into his chest to extract his beating heart. They do not risk putting him under anesthetics for it will impact the heart, so they allow him to suffer, all in the name of science. No, that is not science fiction, or a horror movie, because it is happening today.

A few weeks ago, a genetically modified pig’s heart was transplanted into a man at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA. Not only are doctors now capable of performing xenotransplantation, but they are also delving deeper into it at a cellular level by using xenografts to make pigs’ organs adaptable for use in humans.

The medical field is agog with the latest development. Revivicor, the only company that supplies pigs suitable for clinical use, called it a “crazy, exciting week.” Moreover, as the human population increases in age as well as numbers, xenotransplantation is going to be in great demand. However, it is not going to be cheap. The owner of Revivicor, United Therapeutics, envisions a future increase in its stock value as the demand for pigs’ body parts surges.

On the one hand, we have excitement in the field of medicine with stock values set to increase exponentially. On the other hand, is anyone concerned about the ethics and morality of breeding innocent sentient beings as though they were unfeeling commodities?

Studies have shown that pigs are as intelligent as three-year-old children but pigs have one significant advantage over children. They have fears and emotions gained from being in constant fear of living in a world that is hell-bent on fattening them up for the kill. Their instincts about humans are a source of considerable fear and consternation that children do not have to deal with.

While scientists are focused on the intricacies of xenografts to make the pigs genetically acceptable for human transplantation, why haven’t there been a hue and cry about the long-term ramifications of having pigs’ DNA embedded into our genealogy? Just as Dr Frankenstein’s monster returned to kill his creator, will we live to regret the use of xenotransplantation in the future?

Frankenstein was an insane scientist, but he was one man on a mission to restore life to the dead. Today we have a cadre of scientists doing primarily the same thing in different organisations, employed by mega-pharmaceutical companies whose primary mission is to create wealth for their shareholders. Are xenotransplantation and xenografts worth the risk of turning the human species into something unrecognisable? Are we creating a modern-day version of Frankenstein’s monster?

I, for one, will not allow myself to become that monster and be the guinea pig for any science experiment. The pernicious influence of big pharmaceuticals and their scientists could very well be our undoing as a species.

I’ve seen both my bedridden parents die as doctors tried in vain to extend their lives. The suffering they endured is not the life-ending episode they envisioned or wanted, it is not how they wanted to live, and neither do I. At my age, having lived a full life, I have no problem with accepting the end when it comes and am quite ready to accept whatever fate metes out to me. Death is a natural part of life, I am ready to embrace it instead of trying to defeat it.

REX CHOOKOLINGO

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