Keep Ban on Cross-Species Transplantation As It Is

FROM National Humane Education Society (NHES)

Tell Australian Government to keep the ban on cross-species transplantation as it is. Prevent cruelty to animals and save humans.

CONTACT

Warwick Anderson, CEO
National Health and Medical Research Council
GPO Box 1421
Canberra, ACT 2601
phone 13 000 64672 or +61 2 6217900
fax +61 2 6217 9100
email

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

According to the National Health and Medical Research Council, “Australia will lift a five year ban on animal-to-human transplant trials at the end of 2009….”

News sources indicate, “The Australian moratorium was introduced in 2004 based on concerns that research in the area could prompt animal viruses, particularly pig viruses, to jump the species gap into humans.

“The World Health Organization has called on countries to establish regulatory control and surveillance mechanisms before allowing xenotransplantations.”

Few medical breakthroughs have ever been attributed to laboratory research on nonhuman animals. What has been learned from this tragic waste of lives is that pig organs are not always compatible with human bodies. With concerns about swine flu and other zoonotic diseases (diseases transmittable from nonhuman to human animals) current in the news today, risking cross-species transplantation is critically dangerous for both humans and animals.

Thank you for everything you do for animals!