Four Pigs Of The Apocalypse (Medical Ethics)

Back when I went to university, there was quite a lot of interesting work being done on human animal transplants. Pigs in particular. The Uni I went to bread mice with human immune systems for tests.

The problem cited with pigs was they have there own viruses and it could be catastrophic if one crossed the species barrier. Like bird flu but a worse disease.

In there favour, I remember studying cancer drugs and it was thought ambitious by my lecturers to cure many cancers with drugs - its extremely difficult to kill a cancer and save the organ. Even viruses are more promising. The herpes virus can treat some brain tumours, only hitting affected cells.

Pig Transplants could render many currently terminal diseases history. I'm not sure what happened to this science I will try and find some references for you.

But - 28 Days Later - One of the UKs best horror films is the why not. I still don't think its a good enough reason to give up on this research.
YouTube (trailer)

Are there some diseases we shouldn't cure? What do you think is holding back this work?

Originally posted by e4chris
Back when I went to university, there was quite a lot of interesting work being done on human animal transplants. Pigs in particular. The Uni I went to bread mice with human immune systems for tests.

The problem cited with pigs was they have there own viruses and it could be catastrophic if one crossed the species barrier. Like bird flu but a worse disea ...[text shortened]... r)

Are there some diseases we shouldn't cure? What do you think is holding back this work?

Too bad they didn't teach you the difference between 'there' and 'their' at this particular university. Or does your post reflect porcine linguistic cross-contamination?

Originally posted by rwingett
Too bad they didn't teach you the difference between 'there' and 'their' at this particular university. Or does your post reflect porcine linguistic cross-contamination?

There is an interesting comeback for that which many use .. ... oh sorry, but English is my third language which I only learnt about a year ago. My father is from India and my mother is from Spain so I am fluent in Hindi and Spanish.

Originally posted by rwingett
Too bad they didn't teach you the difference between 'there' and 'their' at this particular university. Or does your post reflect porcine linguistic cross-contamination?

it reflects science and hard work not arts greennesss and bull I did 20 hours a week lectures a part time job arts folks did 4 hours on a trust fund. you understand shakespeare is a waste of precious time to some.

This is a dead serious thread about life threatening illnesses such as liver cancer if you have nothing moral / of merit to say go (to hell).

Originally posted by e4chris
it reflects science and hard work not arts greennesss and bull I did 20 hours a week lectures a part time job arts folks did 4 hours on a trust fund. you understand shakespeare is a waste of precious time to some.

This is dead serious thread about life threatening illnesses such as liver cancer if you have nothing moral / of merit to say go (to hell).

Maybe I'll stick around and try to derail your thread.

Originally posted by e4chris
Back when I went to university, there was quite a lot of interesting work being done on human animal transplants. Pigs in particular. The Uni I went to bread mice with human immune systems for tests.

The problem cited with pigs was they have there own viruses and it could be catastrophic if one crossed the species barrier. Like bird flu but a worse disea r)

Are there some diseases we shouldn't cure? What do you think is holding back this work?

Now THAT would be quite a chimera: Bread mice🙂

Seriously, there are diseases that seem to protect some other part of the body, and some are quite subtle, but work not done in the UK will be done elsewhere. Look at the stupidity going on in the US, where evolution theory is fought tooth and nail even though the study of evolution can lead to many answers about diseases in humans and animals. Yet these religious right wing young Earther asssholes want to shut down research on evolution and concentrate on making bigger churches. It's no wonder the US is falling behind in total papers written now and our educational system is something like # 30 in the world.

A lot of diseases are caused by proteins and RNA not folding right, so there is a whole scientific discipline revolving around the computer analysis of what makes for proper folding. That is the cause of a lot of diseases like Mad Cow and such, it's an improperly folded prion.

Lets face it: Human, animal and plant biology is a dauntingly complex subject and our science is still rather primitive even though we are curing more and more diseases today than 50 years ago.
We still cannot cause a finger to regrow even though some amphibians do it all the time. Regeneration is another area of science that billions are being spent on and now the relationship between genes is a hot science, where the study of the non encoding sections of genes are now revealing themselves to have active roles to play in the expression of proteins and such. Everything in biology is new, we are only scratching the surface of the knowledge we need to fix all the ills the human body can come up with.

Even 100 more years of solid research will not be enough to suss out everything.

My guess is if we manage to keep our civilization going as it has been in terms of scientific research, maybe in 500 years we will be curing all the major ills of today.

Having said that, there will always be a fight to the death involving the evolution of viruses that become ever more virulent over time. That is a fight that will be with us even 1000 years from now. Those little buggers never give up!

Would you like an essay on how credit card fraud convictions (non murder) in China are used for executions, to provide organs, livers for transplant.

Any ideas on a different system? What if not enough people commit fraud? Is that wicked to say?

So... why pig transplants folks? .... why not?

Originally posted by rwingett
Maybe I'll stick around and try to derail your thread.

you could have a pig thread of your own? 😛

Originally posted by e4chris
you could have a pig thread of your own? 😛

Maybe one on the Bay of Pigs.

Originally posted by rwingett
Maybe one on the Bay of Pigs.

go for it! I'm looking up pig transplants now - the point I was making in a way is 10 years ago this was possible....

there you go

11 years ago to be precise! who forgot?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jan/03/qanda.simonjeffery

Originally posted by sonhouse
Now THAT would be quite a chimera: Bread mice🙂

Seriously, there are diseases that seem to protect some other part of the body, and some are quite subtle, but work not done in the UK will be done elsewhere. Look at the stupidity going on in the US, where evolution theory is fought tooth and nail even though the study of evolution can lead to many answers is a fight that will be with us even 1000 years from now. Those little buggers never give up!

was that an edit that essay you put in!

But is that a yes or a no to pig transplants? Research 11 years ago in Virginia made animals fit for them, you can buy mice bread like that for c£100 each.

What do you say?

my boss was on a fortune n cld nt spell.. I 'can't spell either but use spll check so lss of those puns they wnt get u promotd

Originally posted by e4chris
was that an edit that essay you put in!

But is that a yes or a no to pig transplants? Research 11 years ago in Virginia made animals fit for them, you can buy mice bread like that for c£100 each.

What do you say?

Pig transplants are not near as good on the pig as humans🙂 That said, it is only a step in the direction of rebuilding organs from our own stem cells. That's why I said the medical profession is still in a primitive stage of its evolution. Eventually we will learn how to rebuild organs from scratch from the persons' own cells, eliminating the need for transplants and all the misery that causes because of the constant need to prevent the transplant from being rejected. You have to give up some immune protection to keep a transplant from rejection. That plus the fact there are only so many transplanted organs available and people still die all the time from being too far down the waiting list totem pole.

Medical science can only be considered mature when they solve the riddle of how to rebuild organs from the persons own cells which is why stem cell research is the true path to transplants, it will completely bypass the NEED for transplants.

The future or organ rebuilds lies in the combination of the exact right amount of stem cells in a 3D printer. I think that is the future of organ rebuilds.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Pig transplants are not near as good on the pig as humans🙂 That said, it is only a step in the direction of rebuilding organs from our own stem cells. That's why I said the medical profession is still in a primitive stage of its evolution. Eventually we will learn how to rebuild organs from scratch from the persons' own cells, eliminating the need for tran ...[text shortened]... xact right amount of stem cells in a 3D printer. I think that is the future of organ rebuilds.

Yes but why put hope on the never never? When their are viable pigs for transplant now? And transplants are never ideal - if you could produce organs hopefully you could breed in some anti rejection in. And you have spares if one goes wrong! you don't and never will get that with human transplants.

I suspect they were ruled out because you might get lung transplants and that could spread viruses - the 28 days later scenario - not so graphic but an outbreak, that was the reason we were given.