Vatican permits animal-to-human organ transplants in new guidelines

The Catholic Church has no objections to using animals as a source of organs, tissues, or cells for transplantation into human beings, and calls for the same bioethic standards that apply to all medical interventions, Euronews writes.

As medical procedures involving animals advance and become more widespread, the Vatican presented on Tuesday, a new document from the Pontifical Academy for Life outlining medical and ethical considerations of these procedures.

“Catholic theology does not have preclusions, on a religious or ritual basis, in using any animal as a source of organs, tissues, or cells for transplantation to human beings,” the document said.

The Vatican notes that although organ transplantation is becoming increasingly widespread worldwide, there are not enough human donors. Xenotransplantation — the use of animal organs for humans — could solve this problem by providing a much larger supply of organs, tissues, and cells.