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Cat Organ Transplants

Posted by michael on Friday February 28, 2003 @01:12AM from the organlegging dept.

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."

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Re:Activism for the sake of activism? by unapersson · 2003-02-28 02:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

"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..."

So do I. But I think it's more of an issue for the donor animal. It may be OK for us to decide that kitty1 should recieve a donor kidney otherwise it won't survive, but is it OK to force a healthy kitty2 to donate said kidney? Then it's more of an ethical dilema, i.e. people getting animals from rescue shelters for donor body parts.