This particular story may relate more to IACUC ethics than to human research protections, but recent stories about testing a kidney grown in a genetically modified pig in a brain-dead human certainly caught our attention.
Here’s one from the New York Times and another from the BBC.
We’re not sure we can even articulate all of the related ethical concerns in this case. But animal involvement in treatment of humans is not new. As an example, pig valves are not uncommonly used in heart valve surgery. (A gentleman we know who got one loved joking about calling those hogs with extra enthusiasm after his surgery.) And is anyone else here old enough to remember when a baboon heart kept a newborn alive for about 3 weeks in the 1980s? Here’s an obituary for the person who led that process.
As someone quoted in the obit points out, we can’t make progress if we didn’t push the boundaries. On the other hand, this kind of experimental work does raise some perplexing ethical concerns.