2/12/97

Contacts:
Clark Ford, Food Science and Human Nutrition, (515) 294-0343
Ed Adcock, Agriculture Information, (515) 294-2314

XENOTRANSPLANTATION TOPIC OF BIOETHICS SYMPOSIUM

AMES -- The ethics of cross-species transplantation, or xenotransplantation, will be debated April 5 at a Bioethics Symposium at Iowa State University.

Recent developments in biotechnology open the possibility of using pigs as a source of organs for humans. Scientists think the practice could be common within 10 years.

Last month the British government barred xenotransplants until the risk of disease transmission is better understood. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a set of xenotransplantation guidelines in September 1996 that allows animal-to-human transplants, but in January reported it would revise the guidelines based on comments from opponents and advocates of xenotransplantation.

The public is invited to the symposium that will introduce the medical science and business aspects of xenotransplantation and then discuss its moral implications. It is titled "Ethics and Xenotransplantation: Should we use animal organs to save human lives?" and is being sponsored by the Iowa State University Bioethics Program.

The symposium will begin at 8:45 a.m. April 5 in the auditorium of the Molecular Biology Building and will conclude at 3:45 p.m. A $5 registration fee includes lunch. To register, contact Clark Ford, Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, 2312 Food Sciences Building, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011; 515-294-0343; 515-294-8181 (fax); cfford@iastate.edu (e-mail).

The symposium will include presentations by Dr. Maureen Martin, director of organ transplantation at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; Lisa Diamond, associate director of research and development at Nextran, a xenotransplantation company; R.G. Frey, professor of philosophy at Bowling Green State University; and Gary Varner, professor of philosophy at Texas A&M University.

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