Lead
"It's a very dangerous operation, and no one can do it. ”
"Then it can't be helped, right?"
"But ......"
"Bring them all, we're going to give them a try. ”
The conversation came from a 1975 negotiation in which a group of doctors were talking about surgery for a heart transplant for an 8-year-old girl from a chimpanzee.
Advances in medicine have brought new possibilities for life expansion, but in areas such as organ transplantation, this has also brought unprecedented challenges.
In order to save a little girl, doctors did not hesitate to take the risk and transplant the chimpanzee's heart, but the result was unexpected, the little girl's life was not extended.
Medical ethics is a very deep hurdle in medical research and practice, how deep is this hurdle?
And where are the boundaries of medicine?
And how can doctors deal with these issues?
1. Chimpanzee heart transplant to a little girl.
In 1975, there was a little girl named Stephanie in the United States, who had a rare heart condition - hyperkalemia.
Hyperkalemia refers to the high concentration of potassium ions in the human blood, which will bring harm to the human body, and in severe cases, it will also lead to cardiac arrest, heart disease, etc., and Stephanie's disease is due to the high concentration of potassium ions in the blood, which leads to problems with heart activity.
At that time, the medical community in the United States was very concerned about hyperkalemia, so a medical team was soon formed to give Stephanie a heart transplant from a chimpanzee.
In 1975, it was nothing new for animals to be provided with organs for transplantation, and in 1975, due to technical limitations, many doctors were looking forward to transplanting patients with animal organs.
However, there is a very big difference between animal organs and human organs, for example, there is a big gap between a pig's heart and a human heart, so if a human heart is to be transplanted, the pig's heart is not competent, but a monkey's heart is used.
However, because monkeys have relatively small hearts, they cannot meet all transplant needs, so it may be more suitable for animals close to humans such as chimpanzees and gorillas.
However, even the organs of animals of close relatives of humans are not usable casually, it depends on the patient's condition, and the patient's blood type must be the same as the blood type of these organs, otherwise, the patient will have rejection.
The doctors were relieved to learn that Stephanie's blood type was the same as that of a chimpanzee, so they decided to transplant Stephanie's heart from a chimpanzee.
II. Inhuman Will: The Dilemma of Medical Ethics.
In 1975, Stephanie's father began to run around looking for suitable chimpanzees, however, the process was not smooth, and many zoos rejected him, and some even said to him: "This is not selling fruit, we will be gone if we sell it to you." ”
However, Stephanie's father did not give up, and he always believed that if he found the right chimpanzee, the doctor would be able to operate on Stephanie, and Stephanie would live.
Finally, Stephanie's father met a kind man at a zoo, and after listening to Stephanie's father's request, the kind man immediately agreed to help him buy a chimpanzee, and Stephanie's father promised to leave the chimpanzee's blood and organs in return.
However, just when both sides thought that Stephanie's illness would soon be cured, they encountered another problem, and that was the problem of medical ethics.
Medical ethics refers to the problems involved in the process of medical research, which are often closely related to ethics and human nature, and these problems are often more difficult than medical technology itself.
Organ transplantation is one of the very difficult problems, some of which are related to ethics and morality, and some of which are related to human nature.
Doctors have brought new life to countless patients through organ transplantation, however, in the process, there are also many patients who have not survived the difficulties due to problems such as rejection, and doctors are doing everything they can to find a new method.
When the doctors saw that Stephanie's blood type was exactly the same as that of a chimpanzee, they were overjoyed, so they decided to operate on Stephanie.
Stephanie's father, however, was faced with another question: "Should the chimpanzee have this surgery?"
And how can a chimpanzee agree to this operation?
This soon caused a storm, and many people expressed their opinions in newspapers and magazines, and among them, some people thought that chimpanzees could perform this operation, while others thought that it could not.
3. Difficulties and failures of xenotransplantation.
Finally, under the appeal of everyone, the doctors chose to give up the operation, and Stephanie's father, for the sake of his daughter's life, at all costs, they took the chimpanzee to the hospital, and the doctors began the transplant operation for the heart.
However, to the doctor's surprise, Stephanie was on the operating table for 6 hours, however, at the most critical time of the operation, there was a problem, and Stephanie's body began to have a rejection reaction, which gave the doctors a headache.
Although the operation was very tricky, with the efforts of the doctors, Stephanie was finally transplanted with a chimpanzee heart, however, even so, Stephanie's body could not accept the chimpanzee's heart, and she could not get rid of hyperkalemia.
In the end, despite the doctors' continuous attempts, Stephanie passed away a few days later, which also gave the doctors a new view: "Xenotransplantation is impossible to succeed, so this case needs to be paid attention to." ”
epilogue
At present, there have been many studies at home and abroad, and a lot of discussions have been carried out on xenotransplantation, and the progress of medicine has also made pig heart transplantation a new strategy, however, there are also huge difficulties, the problem of rejection, so that the success rate of xenotransplantation is extremely low.
In the study of xenotransplantation, some very difficult issues also need to be discussed, such as: how to improve rejection, improve the success rate of transplantation, and more importantly, how to judge inhuman will, which is a very difficult road.
We hope that the medical profession can break through this difficulty as soon as possible and bring new hope to patients and let them get through it, but what we should see more is that doctors do everything to fight for patients, and at the same time, we must also carry out a deep reflection on medical ethics.
We should be more cautious and respect life, which is the most important thing, and we need to keep it in mind both in the medical process and in the medical research process.