Animal-to-human organ transplantation (xenotransplantation) did not originate in a vacuum.  It is the result of a fundamental assumption by the medical establishment that the solution to most of society's health problems lies in ever more expensive, complex and sometimes risky technologies.  Thus, historically, the first transplant of a human heart in 1967 was widely hailed as modern medicine's supreme achievement, despite the fact the patient died not long afterward.
   
              Today...many patients still die as a direct result of complications from the transplant, and others describe their lives as a living hell due to the polypharmacy regime and lifestyle restrictions that are forced upon them.
   
               ...Transgenic transplants actually represent one experimental technique (the production of transgenic animals) superimposed on another (the transplantation of transgenic animal organs into human beings)...a statistical nightmare, since there is an exponential increase in unknown risks.
   
      ...the public is being led to believe that the main obstacle - foreign organ rejection - can be overcome on the basis of earlier experiments in which monkeys receiving transgenic pig hearts survived for 60 days.  Modern medicine still has great difficulty matching human tissue types, let alone animal tissue types.

    However, a more serious public health consideration is that of disease transmission from animal to human, and subsequently to the general population.  A worst case scenario could mean another AIDS-like epidemic, with little promise of containment, given the difficulty of carrying out environmental impact studies beforehand…. 

    ….Equally disturbing is the well-publicized statement made by another US veterinary virologist, Jonathan Allan: "This is a serious mistake...it only takes one transmission from one baboon to a human to start an epidemic.  There's no way you can make it safe."
   
    Despite these and other clear warnings not to proceed with xenotransplants, the United Kingdom health authorities have decided, nevertheless, to "proceed with caution" with pig-to-human transplants.  It is truly ironic that these health authorities, which go to extremes to protect the public from importing the rabies virus are now prepared to expose that same public to an "unquantifiable" risk by transplanting known and unknown pig viruses into people.

    The situation in the US is actually far worse since xenotransplants have already taken place, unopposed by either the Food and Drug Administration or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the very bodies whose stated policies are to protect the health of the public.  Despite the fact that almost all of the patients who received animal organs died soon after their operation, and despite the fact that FDA policies have always been "risk averse" (i.e. against research methods that are not well understood), the US Government continues to allow xenotransplants to proceed.  In 1984, Leonard Bailey transplanted a baboon heart into newborn "Baby Fae" at Loma Linda University, despite the fact that a proven surgical repair technique could have been used instead of the high-risk baboon heart.  In addition, a human heart was available at the time.  Also, the majority of medical opinion at the time was against the idea of using a baboon heart at all.

    ...Legal questions...who would be responsible for paying compensation to persons who are damaged as a result of the animal organ inside them, or to secondary victims exposed to the viruses xeno-recipients transmit.  A further major obstacle, which must be overcome before xenotransplantation can proceed, is how to obtain the "informed consent" of the general population, since xenotransplantation  puts not only the recipient at risk, but also the general public.

    The best long-term solution to organ transplants in general is preventive medicine, in the widest possible meaning of the term (obviously this does not apply to those in need of an immediate organ transplant).  Several alternatives exist, although none provides a complete solution.  There is an urgent need for governments to invest more in preventive measures (such as improved diet and lifestyle patterns, anti-smoking campaigns, and the like) in order to reduce future waiting lists to the point where supply meets demand.

    Allotransplantation (human to human is still the best that modern medicine can offer the end-stage organ failure patient.  From a medical perspective, however, organ transplants with a few exceptions are an admission of failure on three counts:

• failure to diagnose a disease condition correctly in the early stages.