Frightening “organ farm” to create human-pig hybrids

It’s a crazy medical experiment that would have Porky Pig running for the hills — and it should have you running, too.

For years we’ve been blurring the lines between animals and humans, transplanting organs from baboons, chimpanzees and pigs into people — usually with deadly results. And earlier this year I told you about a secret government-sponsored ranch in South Dakota where cows were being given human immune systems.

Well, we haven’t seen anything yet.

Because right now, a biotech company is planning to build a massive farm with hundreds of thousands of human-pig hybrids. They’re promising they’re going to create an unlimited supply of replacement organs and that you’ll never have to wait for a heart or liver transplant again.

But what they’re not telling you is that this dangerous idea was tried two decades ago and it was such a disaster that the government had to step in and stop it. And while these scientists are playing God, they could unleash new viruses or diseases that would put millions of us at risk.

Bride of Frankenswine“I’m doing it now, with no delay.”

That’s what Martine Rothblatt of United Therapeutics said about her — well, pig-headed — plan to launch a mega-farm where genetically engineered pigs would grow organs for humans.

Rothblatt wants to mix human and pig DNA to create hearts, lungs, livers and kidneys that our bodies would be less likely to reject.

That’s something called xenotransplantation and it isn’t just ethically murky — it has a terrible history. Over the years, several human patients have died getting organs “donated” by animals.

And what Rothblatt is talking about isn’t some Old McDonald outfit with a red barn. She wants to genetically alter and kill 100,000 pig-human hybrids a year to harvest their organs.

And let’s face it — if you’re talking about 100,000 slaughtered pigs a year, it’s a matter of time before one of these Frankenswine hybrids (or parts of one) accidentally ends up in our food supply. It’s enough to make you swear off ham sandwiches for good.

But the danger that has plenty of scientists worried is that these pigs will spread to humans new and contagious diseases we don’t have to worry about now — and have no way to cure. Just last year a panel of four bioethicists said that the benefits of these cross-species transplants don’t outweigh the risks and may lead to viral outbreaks that could “theoretically kill millions of people.”

Millions. Or, as Porky Pig would say, “That’s all, folks.”

In fact, when this same stunt was attempted 20 years ago, that’s exactly the risk that researchers discovered.

In 1995 the FDA gave permission for Nextran to create temporary organs from pigs for patients waiting for human livers. The whole operation was shut down after we discovered that a virus present in every single pig cell could infect humans.

It was right around that time that Harvard Professor Fritz Bach, one of the greatest transplant scientists in history, said we needed to stop these frightening cross-species experiments until we understood all the risks.

And it looks like even Rothblatt and United Therapeutics aren’t anywhere close to comprehending the dangers — or maybe they’re just ignoring them. The company has been bragging that it implanted a pig heart into a baboon and that the primate lived for a couple years.

But the fact is, the experiment was tried on several baboons — and nobody is talking about the rest of them.

People like Rothblatt — you know, who stand to make a buck — want us to believe that animal-human hybrids are part of the “brave new world” we’re living in. She even claims the nightmarish organs from her new farm are going “to save many tens of thousands of lives.”

Yeah, maybe when pigs fly.

On the other hand, let’s not give her any ideas.

Sources:

“Martine Rothblatt wants to grow human organs in pigs at this farm” Jason Koebler, June 24, 2015, Motherboard, motherboard.vice.com

“150 human animal hybrids grown in UK labs: Embryos have been produced secretly for the past three years” Daniel Martin, Simon Caldwell, The Daily Mail, dailymail.co.uk

“A history of xenotransplantation experiments” Frontline, pbs.org