Kidney donations do not have to harm animals
The former Anheuser-Busch property in Merrimack was recently purchased by United Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing genetically modified pig organs. Before turning to pigs for their organs, we should do everything possible to increase living human kidney donation. Why spend years and millions of dollars developing an experimental pig kidney when human kidney transplantation is already an established treatment? We should launch a public campaign educating Americans about kidney donation and encouraging more people to become donors.
Humans have two kidneys. Healthy people can donate one and continue living a long and healthy life with the other. People can even donate to someone they have never met. This is called non-directed living kidney donation.
Kidney donation is a serious medical decision requiring extensive screening, but people deserve to know about it. Actor Jesse Eisenberg recently spoke publicly about donating a kidney to a stranger. His story can help show that living donation can give someone a second chance at life.
Anyone interested can contact a transplant hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock in Lebanon or call United Network for Organ Sharing at 1-866-678-6411.
Pigs bred for their organs are denied everything that is natural to them. We should not cause their suffering when a better alternative is available. We simply need to make more people aware of that alternative. Please help spread the word.