Xenotransplantation Essay -- Medical Medicine essays

Xenotransplantation Introduction According to Webster's Dictionary, a doctor is one skilled or specializing in healing arts. However, what is entailed in these "healing arts" has expanded time and time again over the course of history. At one point in time, to be a doctor was as simple as administering the right dose of a certain elixir, and then as time went on advances were made in the areas of antibiotics and other medicines, as well as in surgical arenas. Now we have come to a new age where doctors are pushing the boundaries of their capability far beyond anyone imagined they could. Since the first kidney transplant less than 40 years ago, a lot of innovations have been made in the world of organ transplantation and various forms of these procedures continue to be hot topics in today's society. Unfortunately, there are about 68,000 people awaiting a transplant of some sort at any given time and only about 20,000 a year actually receive them. In addition, the demand for transplants is increasing at a rate of 15% a year. It is statistics like this that continue to keep medical professionals striving for alternative methods of transplanting. This limited availability of human organs and tissues, coupled with recent technological advances, has increasingly led to the implantations of living cells from other species when human donors are not available, when a bridge organ is needed, or when animal cells may provide some sort of unique benefit. This is called xenotransplantation. Xenotransplantation is perhaps the most talked about area in the medical community today as it involves the loaded issue of cloning and gene mutation. Although a large portion of the material found on xenotransplantation focuses on the transpl... ...in a state of a free for all. We cannot let humans in legitimate need suffer just in case the public might think a certain way about the medical industry. However, there are certain cases when I think the medical industry does have an effect on society. For example, on the topic of human cloning, I say ban it. There is no real need to clone a person, sure it would be neat, but there isn't a need. Then there is xenotransplantation where there is a real need and you are actually able to save lives. In society we have an obligation to do what we can, within reason, to save the lives that can be saved under the guidance of skilled medical professionals who have made an oath to act ethically. We trust them with our lives, why not trust their opinions? Bibliography 1.www.ama-assn.org 2.www.diabetic.org> 3.www.encarta.msn.com 4.www.dukenews.duke.edu Xenotransplantation Essay -- Medical Medicine essays Xenotransplantation Introduction According to Webster's Dictionary, a doctor is one skilled or specializing in healing arts. However, what is entailed in these "healing arts" has expanded time and time again over the course of history. At one point in time, to be a doctor was as simple as administering the right dose of a certain elixir, and then as time went on advances were made in the areas of antibiotics and other medicines, as well as in surgical arenas. Now we have come to a new age where doctors are pushing the boundaries of their capability far beyond anyone imagined they could. Since the first kidney transplant less than 40 years ago, a lot of innovations have been made in the world of organ transplantation and various forms of these procedures continue to be hot topics in today's society. Unfortunately, there are about 68,000 people awaiting a transplant of some sort at any given time and only about 20,000 a year actually receive them. In addition, the demand for transplants is increasing at a rate of 15% a year. It is statistics like this that continue to keep medical professionals striving for alternative methods of transplanting. This limited availability of human organs and tissues, coupled with recent technological advances, has increasingly led to the implantations of living cells from other species when human donors are not available, when a bridge organ is needed, or when animal cells may provide some sort of unique benefit. This is called xenotransplantation. Xenotransplantation is perhaps the most talked about area in the medical community today as it involves the loaded issue of cloning and gene mutation. Although a large portion of the material found on xenotransplantation focuses on the transpl... ...in a state of a free for all. We cannot let humans in legitimate need suffer just in case the public might think a certain way about the medical industry. However, there are certain cases when I think the medical industry does have an effect on society. For example, on the topic of human cloning, I say ban it. There is no real need to clone a person, sure it would be neat, but there isn't a need. Then there is xenotransplantation where there is a real need and you are actually able to save lives. In society we have an obligation to do what we can, within reason, to save the lives that can be saved under the guidance of skilled medical professionals who have made an oath to act ethically. We trust them with our lives, why not trust their opinions? Bibliography 1.www.ama-assn.org 2.www.diabetic.org> 3.www.encarta.msn.com 4.www.dukenews.duke.edu