Keeping Abreast Of The Developments In Xenotransplantation And Developing A Framework To Deal With The Medico-Ethical Issues Arising From Such Transplants

Last month, there was a medical breakthrough in the US. A 57-year-old man underwent a heart transplant. The donor was a genetically modified pig. Without the heart transplant, the man would have likely died as it would have been difficult to secure a human donor.

The transplant procedure is still very much at an experimental stage. Assuming this becomes clinically feasible, this may provide hope to the many people needing organ transplant to survive. At the same time, there are medico-ethical issues to sort out too. For example, as a society, we need to consider the ethics of growing an animal purely for the purpose of supplying organs for us. I therefore filed a parliamentary question on this area with a view that MOH keep abreast of developments in this area and initiate, in good time, the establishment of a framework to deal with these potential ethical issues. My parliamentary question and the Minister for Health’s response may be accessed below.

Mr Murali Pillai asked the Minister for Health in light of the recent developments on the transplant of animal organs in humans, whether the Ministry will consider establishing a framework to deal with medical ethical issues arising from such transplants in Singapore.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Locally, there have been no cases where animal organs have been used for human transplantation. This is a form of xenotransplantation, which is currently not regarded as standard treatment internationally.

There remain multiple barriers to the clinical application of xenotransplantation, such as graft rejections and risk of infections from donor animals. As it is still considered experimental, xenotransplantation, if done locally, should only be done in the context of pre-clinical or clinical studies, until there is robust evidence supporting its long-term safety and clinical efficacy.

As there may be social and ethical issues involved, should such research on xenotransplantation be carried out locally, it must adhere to existing ethical safeguards for the conduct of clinical studies, such as the requirement for Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval.

MOH will monitor developments overseas, and study the need for additional governance as well as the attendant socio-ethical concerns, should the procedure be considered for approval in Singapore.