Lord Winston, the fertility expert and Labour peer, is to begin breeding genetically modified pigs in the hope of providing organs for transplant to humans, it was reported yesterday.
"People needing a new heart or liver are waiting for someone else to die –
usually a violent death in a traffic accident," Lord Winston wrote in a Sunday newspaper.
Lord Winston, who heads the Institute of Reproductive and Developmental Biology at London's Hammersmith Hospital, expects the technique to provide a solution to the shortage of organs within ten years.
The scientists are introducing human genes into the animals to reduce the chances of the organs being rejected by patients' bodies.
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This autumn, Uncaged is stepping up to the plate to campaign against re-emerging GM pig organ transplant (xenotransplantation) experiments. Xenotransplantation has been condemned as 'dying on its feet' by scientific experts, and is deeply unpopular with the public. Despite this, the UK Government has once again bypassed its own regulations to promote horrific animal cruelty. Uncaged