Vatican OKs transplants from animals to humans - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 12, 2001 by Gill Donovan

VATICAN CITY: The Vatican gave broad ethical clearance to research in transplanting animal tissues into humans but asked scientists to use "maximum caution" because of unknown risks of passing animal diseases into human populations.

In a document released Sept. 26, the Pontifical Academy for Life recommended potentially quarantining early human recipients of animal organs and prohibiting them from sexual intercourse until they are determined to present no risk of contagion.

Addressing another issue, the academy ruled out transplants of human testicles and ovaries, which, it said, like human brains were organs inseparably tied to a person's identity.

Presented only in Italian at a Vatican news conference, the 11,000-word document was the fruit of a Vatican working group made up of 23 church ethicists and international experts in animal organ transplants, known as xenotransplants. The text offers a technical overview of the state of xenotransplant research, which is still in early stages, and a detailed analysis of potential ethical issues.

Given the extraordinary and demanding precautions, the Vatican document said the patient's "informed consent" was critical.

It also said human recipients of animal organs should receive psychological care before and after the operation to overcome "probable repercussions" to their psyches.

Offering a broad ethical underpinning for xenotransplant research, the document said human beings have a right to use animals to achieve true human progress, but also a responsibility to treat them decently.

It said genetic modification of animals to make their organs more easily transferable to humans was ethically permissible as long as the number of animals was limited, they did not suffer undue stress or pain, no damage was done to biodiversity, and the organs were harvested in a single operation.