Don’t Know If This Is Kosher…..
Your Mandarin happened upon this article today that outlines the progress being made by scientist to transplant pig lungs into humans.
Aside from the fact that similar experiments have been going on here at the Castle for years – with horrifying and unpredictable results – this news seems like a breakthrough that will save many lives. I suspect that as we continue to unravel and document the DNA of humans and various animal species, more significant breakthroughs and medical treatments will be discovered.
Many people in this country are still resistant to the idea of donating their organs after death. Some mistakenly believe that if they are a donor, hospitals and doctors will not make every effort to save their lives in order to harvest their organs. Some people refuse to be donors or recipients based on religious beliefs, and some refuse to donate just because.
With the ability to harvest organs from pigs and other animals, just like we harvest them for food, we could eliminate long waiting times for transplants and possibly eliminate the need to deny people transplant opportunities due to the shortage of available organs. I would also suspect that we could genetically engineer these animals to make their organs less susceptible to rejection and possibly be type-neutral in that the organ could be used in any person regardless of blood-type and other matching characteristics.
My only real concern is, if I get a pig organ and then have bacon, does that make me a cannibal?
The Mandarin, whose real name is 吏恆, joined the order in 1309, and introduced the Gormogons into England during the 18th Century.
The Mandarin enjoys spending time with his pet manticore, Βάρἰκος, or Barry (who can be found in the Bestiary). When not in the Castle…well, frankly, nobody is quite sure where he goes.
The Mandarin popularized the fine art of “gut booting,” by which he delivers a powerful kick to the stomach of anyone that annoys him. Although nearly universal today, the act of gut booting or threatening someone or something with a gut boot is solely due to him.