ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the work of a number of international and European agencies on xenotransplantation. It assesses the contributions of the World Health Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe to debates on animal to human transplants. The chapter presents a survey of how various nation states are choosing to regulate the actual or potential development of xenotransplantation. The workshop heard concerns surrounding the ambiguous impact xenotransplantation may have on resource-poor countries. The document proposes to formulate a network of national and international exchange on the public health response necessitated by xenotransplantation. The chapter draws on documentation and reports that have been issued by individual countries as part of their regulatory response to xenotransplantation. In respect of the ethical dimensions of xenotransplantation, the respondents are reported to have been concerned primarily with general issues such as whether the procedure is unnatural and whether humans should interfere with nature.
