ABSTRACT
In the United Kingdom efforts to investigate the ethical and regulatory issues presented by the development of animal to human transplantation commenced in earnest with reports by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Advisory Group on the Ethics of Xenotransplantation. This chapter considers how United Kingdom Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority has gone about attempting to address the issues and meet the responsibilities. It assesses the contribution of the Nuffield and Kennedy Reports to the development of animal to human transplantation in the United Kingdom. The Nuffield Council began its consideration of xenotransplantation by clarifying the assumptions on which its work was predicated. The transgenic pigs, modified and bred for xenotransplantation would, therefore, seem to have all the actions, reactions and habits of a ‘normal pig’. One of the major concerns about xenotransplantation is, of course, the possibility that infection may spread from animal to recipient, and thence to the population as a whole.
