Xenotransplantation: Moral Universalism or Moral Subjectivity

Modern medicine has made the impossible possible and continues to scale new heights everyday. We are looking to a future where we can conquer all known diseases due to advances in modern day medicine. While we are discussing modern medicine, lets discuss the case of Xenotransplantation. What is Xenotransplantation? It is the infusion or transplantation of live tissues, cells or even entire organs into humans from non human donors. It sounds grisly but xenotransplantation has helped save countless lives. From bovine and porcine valves for heart surgeries to cell culture implants to counter diabetes, xenotransplantation has a huge scope for the future. But xenotransplantation is not with its ethical dilemmas. Animal rights groups have raised concerns over the ethicality of xenotransplantation given the fact that such a procedure usually means that the donor animal dies. It is hard to justify killing of another organism on any grounds however it is equally hard to justify inaction while a human being suffers. Is not such inaction tantamount to murder? And if it is murder then can not the principles of soft universalism as set forth by James Rachels justify such a procedure. After all Rachel's justification of murder being an immoral act in itself is because it violates the social contract humans make with each other. If murder is condoned then society itself would fall apart as individuals would stop trusting other individuals. Is there any similar social contract between animals and humans? Yes our moral subjectivity dictates that we must accept that wanton killing of animals is wrong and that animals must be treated ethically, and many places of the world it has become part of common law. However when pitted against the universalistic argument against human murder, our moral subjectivity falls short in justifying arguments against xenotransplantation. In short soft universalism must take precedence over individual moral subjectivity. In other words, what an individual deems as moral may be in stark contrast to what society as a whole believes is moral. In the case of Xenotransplantation, the distinction between animal and human must be drawn somewhere.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/may/09/organ-transplants-animal-ethics/?#article-copy