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Cat Organ Transplants
sophie baines writes "Vets have given their approval for cats to have kidney transplants in the UK-despite ethical concerns about the procedure.
Liverpool University is believed to be one of the few veterinary teaching centres around the country to have the advanced specialist equipment needed to carry out the operation."
It's a cat! I've got two cats. While I will certainly agree that they have a mind of their own (and for some reason think that the best place to be is underfoot while I'm walking in the morning), but consent??? It's a cat...
"Mr. Whiskers, this is a risky operation with potential complications. It is entirely possible that you could die due to this surgery. I still advise you to have it done, as your organs are failing and you won't live much longer without a transplant. We have a ready donor, do you give your consent for this transplant to be done?"
"Meow."
Boggling what people will do to have a cause.
Grimwell - old, cranky, mean, obsessive
That's discrimination that is
>>particularly over the issue of choice and consent
We decide for them where they go, what they eat, when to bath, push them away when we want.
We let them locked inside when there's nobody home, we decide when and why they lose their reproductive abilities. If they need medication, we push it inside their throats.
Yeah, like people care for choice and consent from cats.
What kind of freedom is that?!
So, how do you get replacement cat kidneys? Do you wait until a suitable donor dies of natural causes, or do you just butcher the first one that will work?
Its interesting that people would see fit to spend generous wads of cash on extending the life of a cat by a couple of years. I wouldve thought that the cost of this would be prohibitively expensive... for the average owner as well as the average cat :)
I also wonder how someone can justify paying this sort of money... thinking of the starving children, etc, etc. Maybe a compulsory tour of a human hospital to look at lack of funding might be in order for people that would pay for this...
those who control the past, control the future. those who control the present, control the past.
... my sister is a vet who was working at the University of Florida, Gainseville teaching centre. She's performed the procedure several times. Successfully, too!
"Yeah, well, Dracula called and he's coming over tonight for you and I said okay."
Steve Austin. Astronaut. A cat barely alive.
... stronger ... faster.
Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic cat. Steve Austin will be that cat. Better than he was before. Better
Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
Feline kidney transplants have been performed in the USA for a while now, in a number of locations. I read about a hospital in Florida, perhaps the same one referenced by the poster above.
I recently had one of my cats euthanized for chronic renal failure (he had a blood clot in his legs and tail and couldn't walk, among other things) and I learned how some people spent thousands of dollars to transplant kidneys or perform regular dialysis.
I didn't read about any particular ethical concerns, just the vets shrugging and saying "if you really want to do it, and you have the money, it's possible".
But my belief is that 1) it's just a cat, you'll get over any grief; and 2) there comes a point when treating your pet that you are no longer doing it *for* the animal, you're doing it *to* the animal for your own selfish wishes. At that point it's better to euthanize.
A cat with transplanted kidneys will never be the same anyway, he will have to take constant
immunosuppressants and other drugs just to stay alive, and will have constant complications and will not be a very happy cat.
My $0.02 as a cat lover.