Your Life or Mine

This title was first published in 2003. Xenotransplantation - the transplantation of animal organs into humans - poses a fascinating moral dilemma. Should this ability to extend the lives of millions of older people be permitted given that it might trigger a new pandemic similar to AIDS? This study examines the moral dilemma from a combination of humanistic, legalistic, bioethical, economical and technological perspectives. The first part of the book demonstrates that xenografts are the only realistic near-term technological answer to the organ shortage problem. The balance of the book is devoted to assessing whether doctrines such as the 'right to health care' trump the moral and ethical conundrums posed by xenotransplantation. The book concludes with a 'geoethical' solution that proposes authorization of xenotransplantation subject to the prior implementation of a new international organization for epidemiology and basic health care. It also suggests that the costs of operating such an organization could be covered by a global tax on xenografts.

Martine Rothblatt is an attorney, medical ethicist and biotech executive. Dr Rothblatt has been principally responsible for two global agreements as well as for the International Bar Association's Human Genome Treaty draft now before the United Nations. She is also the founder and chief executive of United Therapeutics, a US-based firm with an approved medicine for pulmonary hypertension, a frequent cause of lung or heart-lung transplantation.

Contents: Introduction: the organ shortage is a major problem that defies conventional solutions; Brave new organs: the status of technological solutions to the problem; Look before you leap: technological risks of xenotransplantation; Of pigs and men: issues of speciesism and chimerism; The right to life: society's obligation to provide health care and xenotransplantation; Is xenotransplantation worth the risk?; A geoethical solution to the conflict between private and public interests in xenotransplantation; Summary; Bibliography; Index; Credits.