Cruelty Free International has criticised attempts by scientists at the University of California in the US to grow human organs inside pigs. The experiment aims to grow a pancreas made almost entirely of human cells within a pig’s foetus in order to harvest the organ for transplant patients.

According to reports, the controversial procedure involves injecting human stem cells into pig embryos to produce human-pig embryos. The embryos are allowed to develop inside a pigs body for 28 days before the pregnancies are terminated and the tissue removed for analysis.

Dr Katy Taylor, Director of Science at Cruelty Free International, says:

“We are saddened to hear yet another hyped up story about the ‘promise’ of the use of pigs to grow human pancreas in the USA. The research is in its early stages and there is no use in humans on the immediate horizon. The procedure has been attempted thousands of times using animals and has monumentally failed because of problems with safety, species differences and organ rejection. Animals are biologically very different to humans, and no amount of ‘humanising’ them will overcome this.

We support greater use of human organs from donors which avoids the suffering of animals and is possible today. Instead of experimenting on innocent animals and offering false hope, more should be done to facilitate the use of organs from human donors, including a mandatory ‘opt-out’ system of organ donation.”