• Question: why do people have pig hearts and not apes because we evolve from apes

    Asked by siobhanb to Jen, Mel, Stef on 21 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 21 Mar 2013:

      good question! There are a few reasons for this one…

      1)it is true that we are similar in size and so organ size to non-human primates (apes and monkeys) but there is a lot of controversy about the risk of viruses that could be passed from ape to human. Some viruses that they carry can be deadly to humans!

      2) It would cost a lot of money to breed non-human primates and keep them healthy for us. Plus they only tend to have one, maybe two babies at a time with a long pregnancy so it would take a long time!

      Pigs are used because, they are actually still quite similar in organ size to humans and they are cheaper to breed, and can have lots of babies (up to 10) in a quicker time frame (only about 4 months of pregnancy)!

      Also, pigs have been used for lots of medical things already, like producing insulin for people with diabetes, or replacing the valves of the heart with pig valves so it is seen as more acceptable.

      There also seems a difference in what people think and feel about pigs vs. apes/monkeys. Pigs are used for food all over the world and most people are perfectly fine with that……but apes and monkeys aren’t. I guess people might see apes/monkeys are TOO human-like and they don’t want to use them for ethical reasons.

      What do you think about it? Would you accept an organ from an ape? or a pig? or neither?

    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 21 Mar 2013:

      Ah lovely answer Jen,
      I would just add one thing that to add to the ethical questions over whether we should use our very close ancestors. Most of the primates are from Africa as far as I know, and there are questions as to whether (because we’re close) diseases could be transferred that we haven’t screened for, and also transporting primates is more and more difficult because of animal rights groups.

      Hope that adds to the answer!

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