Animal farm--the ethics and public policy of xenotransplantation.

In 1997, over four thousand people on organ waiting lists lost their lives. The current organ shortage has led to the need to find alternative sources of organs for transplantation. Advances in immunosuppressive therapies and genetics have made xenotransplantation, the transplantation of animal organs into humans, an increasingly viable technology. However, the promise of xenotransplantation is tempered by the unspecified amount of risk that zoonotic pathogens could mutate and infect humans with potentially deadly diseases.