In the biology textbook, every class of students will lament the development of human cloning technology, and the cloned sheep "Dolly" dominates every year, becoming a beautiful landscape in the field of cloning. However, the textbook only describes Dolly's final ending in a few words, and compared with the great praise of cloning technology, the textbook is deliberately playing down the tragedy of cloning sheep.
A sheep's survival age is twelve years, but Dolly ages at the age of three and is not optimistic by the time she is six. On the eve of Dolly's euthanasia, rheumatism and lung disease coexist, and Dolly seems to be using her own ending to inform the red line of human science and technology.
However, for many years, humans have always been doing some "supernatural" things, and the cloned sheep Dolly is only the first step for humans to challenge the "heavenly reincarnation", and the footsteps of humans are still exploring unknown areas. For example, thirty years ago, a baby girl in the United States was given a life extension by transplanting the heart of a baboon.
Baby girls are matched with baboon hearts
In 1984, it was the most ordinary night in the United States, and on this day, a hospital in California, usa, received a pregnant woman, Teresa. The baby is naturally happy at birth, but then there is bad news announced by the doctor, the baby girl is difficult to grow up due to heart insufficiency, and it is more likely that she will die in infancy.
When Teresa learned of her daughter's condition, she prayed to the gods for protection all day long, until a call from a scientific team rang. Renard claimed that he could save the life of a baby girl through organ transplantation techniques. Compared with now, the organ transplant technology at that time was not yet developed, and today's technology will still have rejection after decades of successful transplantation, let alone at that time.
The medical technique given by Renard is to save the life of a baby girl by transplanting the heart of a baboon. The technology was extremely risky at the time, not only life-threatening, but also ethical and moral tests for baby girls. But in the face of life and death, which can take care of the events of decades later, as the baby girl's breathing becomes weaker and weaker, Teresa still chooses to agree.
This is the first time in history that a baboon's heart has been transplanted to humans, and although the earliest ancestors of humans were primates, it is not so easy to find a heart that matches a baby girl. In 1984, Renard assembled an experienced medical team and found the heart that best matched a baby girl from six infant baboons.
Ten hours later, the baboon's heart was beating in the baby girl's body, meaning the success of the heart surgery. Human successful transplantation of baboon hearts is a milestone for science and technology, if the baby girl can grow up safely, the natural birth and death of human beings will be rewritten, so the baby girl from the moment of successful surgery, began a full range of tracking reports.
However, it still disappointed everyone. In the 21 days after the operation, the baby girl's physical indicators began to decline exponentially, and although the doctors carried out rescue work in time, they still died because of "body rejection". That is to say, the Renard team tried every means to avoid the risk of "body rejection", but finally failed!
When the operation was successful, Raynald was held on the altar, and at that moment he was the savior of all mankind, or "God". But after the death of the baby girl, the attitude of public opinion took a 180-degree turn, and in addition to attacking Renard's so-called "science", he also labeled Renard "brutal". Public opinion believes that the life of baboons is also life, animals are equal to humans, and it is unreasonable to exchange animal lives for human life!
When science and technology are successful, you are the savior; When science and technology fail, anyone can criticize you. No one will think that the person who once praised you is the person who criticizes you now, and this is the human heart that cannot look directly at the sun.
Xenotransplantation, how far away
Before meeting the baby girl, Renard had seen too many children who died of heart insufficiency, and the current medical treatment was to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause, but to delay for a while in the race against death. Renard believes that all problems can be solved by just changing one heart.
Before meeting the baby girl, Renard had been studying animal cubs for many years, and the experiment on the baby girl was a gamble between him and the god of death.
Over the years, the awareness of organ donation has increased compared to the past days, but it is still in the stage of short supply, and it is even more difficult to find a heart with a high matching rate, and the desire for the success of "xenotransplantation" has become the most anticipated thing for all mankind!
In addition to the thorny difficulties of science and technology, we are also facing ethical and moral accusations. The Renard team's unauthorized "one life for one life" approach not only touches the defense line of animal protection, but also blurs the ethical boundaries. Although baboons are the ancestors of human beings, they are fundamentally different from humans, and in this regard, social consciousness and moral concepts are like a mountain that is difficult to cross.
If a human body has animal organs, is he still a complete human being? At the same time, will the person's lifespan, habits, and even genes be affected? If everyone were like this, would the social order that belongs to human beings still exist, and would the human society that has been maintained for thousands of years collapse?
So after the failed surgery of the baby girl, the protesters not only marched in the streets, but also rushed into loma Linda University, and the anti-social behavior of the Renard team was infinitely magnified in front of public opinion and protesters.
So, xenotransplantation, how far is it? Hidden here is not only the problem of science and technology, but also the problem of human cognition! Human beings cannot only enjoy the current preferential treatment of science and technology, and consider the social order for future generations and thousands of years later, which is also one of the things that need to be done in today's society!
Organ transplants never stop
Although the shouts are higher than the waves, the pace of organ transplantation has never stopped, and Renard has still struggled on the front line for decades, hoping to have a new breakthrough in organ transplantation! Any technological development is accompanied by applause and questioning, and at the time of dying life, it is estimated that no one will consider the ethics and morality in it!
Moreover, science and technology are more like the exclusive rights of the upper class, and ordinary people simply cannot afford to support the expensive costs. Perhaps the selfishness that public opinion criticizes is actually the selfishness of ordinary people. Ordinary people will experience life, old age, illness and death, and as for high society, it is entirely possible to reverse the laws of nature through science and technology. Being born as a human being, we are already unequal in the face of wealth and power, but we must also be unequal in the face of the laws of nature, and we must not suffer from the psychology of widowhood but inequality, which may be far more terrible than social public opinion!