Human organs to be grown using pigs to solve transplant shortage

According to Daily Mail, at least 1,000 Americans die yearly while waiting for organ donations. This breakthrough will help solve the problem, but the embryos cannot be matured past 28 days and no birth of a hybrid animal is allowed. "Our hope is that this pig embryo will develop normally but the pancreas will be made almost exclusively out of human cells and could be compatible with a patient for transplantation," Dr Pablo Ross told BBC.

One of the biggest challenges is that the human stem cells might migrate to the developing pig’s brain, giving it some human characteristics, Daily Mail reported. "With every organ we will look at what’s happening in the brain and if we find that it’s too human-like, then we won’t let those foetuses be born," Professor Walter Low of the University of Minnesota told the publication.

However, not everyone is pleased with the move. Josephine Quintavalle of campaign group Comment on Reproductive Ethics believes the move was "absolutely offensive to human dignity", while Peta UK’s Julia Baines said that "creating human-animal hybrids is bad for people and worse for animals", Daily Mail reported.

The news has also received mixed reaction on social media.