HAVE A HEART - XENOTRANSPLANTATION, NONHUMAN DEATH AND HUMAN DISTRESS

An increasing shortage of transplant donor organs currently results in an escalating number of preventable human deaths. Xenotransplantation , the use of animal organs for transplantation into humans, is now her alded as medicine's most viable answer to the urgent and insurmountabl e human organ scarcity. Although claimed to be a biomedical prerogativ e, xenotransplantation is a cultural phenomenon - a procedure engaging both the physical and symbolic manipulation of human and nonhuman bod ies, thereby transforming corporeality, identity, and culture. Biomedi cal and scientific discourses about xenografts have obscured issues re lated to nonhuman animals and also could be distressful to human organ recipients, revealing that the xenograft may not be widely embraced.