Xenotransplantation and Human Fetal Tissue Transplantation :: Biology Biological Science Essays

Xenotransplantation and Human Fetal Tissue transplantingABSTRACT The ecofeminist critique of dualism is applied to a consideration of two pick paths that we might take in transplantation medicine the utilization of variety meat and tissues taken from non homo animals, and/or further development of techniques for employing gay organs and tissues, including forgiving fetal tissue. It is concluded that from an evolutionary perspective, the assumption of a Brobdingnagian value disparity between human and nonhuman living is unten equal to(p), and from a moral point of view the establishment of yet another fundament based on a dualistic opposition between human life, postulated to be of ultimate value, versus devalued, disposable other life is unacceptable. We argon urged to repudiate xenotransplantation and instead take responsibility for what eer manipulations we choose, respectfully, to make with life that is already valued as self rather than other. Technological advances in b iomedicine are occurring with increasing rapidity at this time in human history, far more rapidly than most of us have been able to comprehend and evaluate them. Yet it is imperative that we strive to do so, beca role we are faced with a choice of paths to pursue, paths that may lead in ever more divergent directions with regard to how we conceive of ourselves as humans and our relation back to the rest of the natural world. How might ecofeminism, an approach developing within environmental philosophy, be relevant to issues of biomedical ethics, and in particular to the topics of xenotransplantation and the use of human fetal tissue? Precisely because a central prime within the ethical controversies surrounding such issues has to do with the way we signalise between self and other, and ecofeminism directly addresses the linkage that may be naturalised between the self-versus-other distinction and dualistic thinking, the drawing of sharp binary oppositions that unfold heavy valu e disparities, an orientation that is seen to underlie relations of domination, oppression and victimisation that abound within western culture. I have designated my own acclivitous view an evolutionary ecofeminist position to underscore the importance of contemporary evolutionary biologys affirmation of the continuity between human life and other forms of life, a continuity that is being disregarded when we conceptualize the self-versus-other distinction according to a dualistic pattern of thought.Xenotransplantation, the transplantation of tissues and organs from other animal species into human beings, is conceived by some as the answer to the organ shortage trouble currently more than 45,000 persons are on the waiting list for organ transplantation within the U.