Xenotransplantation

EDM number 1255 in 1997-98, proposed by Paul Flynn on 28/04/1998.

That this House notes the public health risks associated with pig-to-human transplants, including the introduction of novel infectious and dangerous micro-organisms into the human population and the immunological, anatomical, and biochemical discrepancies between pigs and humans; recognises the potential for substantial cost implications for the National Health Service should the risk of infection or other medical complications materialise; notes the considerable suffering endured by pigs and primates in the course of the xenotransplantation experiments and the prospect of an increase in the level of suffering endured by pigs should xenotransplantation become a routine clinical practice; and, in the light of these profound implications for public health and animal welfare, calls upon the Government to preserve the moratorium on clinical trials, to initiate as a matter of urgency a full and wide-ranging parliamentary debate on xenotransplantation to facilitate the democratic scrutiny that xenotransplantation demands and to ensure that the precautionary principle applies to xenotransplantation whereby one of the conditions to be fulfilled before clinical trials are considered is that the safety of the procedure is guaranteed.

This motion has been signed by a total of 21 MPs.