If scientists could grow human organs inside of pigs, would it be halachically acceptable to receive a transplant of such an organ?
A recent article in National Public Radio about US and British researchers working towards a potential scientific and medical advancement raised this question:
A handful of scientists around the United States are trying to do something that some people find disturbing: make embryos that are part human, part animal.
The researchers hope these embryos, known as chimeras, could eventually help save the lives of people with a wide range of diseases. Perhaps the boldest hope is to create farm animals that have human organs that could be transplanted into terminally ill patients.
Talking with my religious friends about this article, most of them expressed shock and dismay at scientists playing G-d. Others pointed out the dangers in creating frankenstein chimeras which may or may not break the Torah's prohibition on mixing seeds. Still others raised ethical issues around using human embryos for medical research of any kind.
But as I thought deeper about it, if the issue is saving a person's life, perhaps pikuach nefesh applies here. On the other hand, I can sympathize with the various objections raised by my friends.
Answer
One question would be whether such an organ would be considered pig and thus forbidden to consume. (The title to your question perhaps suggests that this is the crux of the question, as it focuses on the transplant of the organ, not the creation of the organ. That being the case, I will focus on this question).
Even if it were, the (near) universal rule in Judaism, is that every prohibition may be violated to save a life except for the three cardinal sins, which do not involve organ transplants from pigs. If the organ transplant was not vital for one's health, it would still not violate the prohibition of consuming pig because one is not eating it.
The only question would be whether there is a prohibition against benefit from pig as distinct from a prohibition to eat it.
The Mishna Sheviit (7:3) states that one is prohibited from engaging in commerce with certain prohibited foods. The Yerushalmi there clarifies that there is a prohibition to engage in commerce with any food that is Biblically forbidden.
The question is therefore whether this represents a universal prohibition against benefit from forbidden foods, or an injunction against commerce in particular.
Rashba (Responsa: 3:223) writes that there is no universal prohibition to benefit from pigs; only a rabbinic injunction against engaging in commerce with them.
אם החזיר מותר בהנאה, במה שהתרת ליקח אותו בחובו? חדא: שהוא בעצמו אינו אסור בהנאה, דבר תורה, ואפילו לעשות בו סחורה, אלא מדבריהם
According to most authorities this limit on commerce is a rabbinic injunction. (Cf. Bartenura in Sheviit there, and Beit Yosef YD 117). They specify that this prohibition only applies when the commerce may lead to consumption of the food. (Cf. Shach YD 117:2). This would be another reason why the rabbinic injunction against commerce would not apply to a transplant; the transplant would not lead to consumption of pig.
Accordingly, even in cases where there is no danger to life, there would be no prohibition on using pig organs.
The remaining problems you raise are:
- "scientists playing G-d"
- The dangers in creating Frankenstein chimeras which may or may not break the Torah's prohibition on mixing seeds.
- Still others raised ethical issues around using human embryos for medical research of any kind.
The first two are not formal prohibitions and even if they were they would be overruled by considerations of saving a life.
The last concern raised; use of embryo tissue for research is the only concern that could potentially override saving a life, as there is the possibility that certain cases of abortion constitute murder.
See these questions related to abortion: May a non-Jew have an abortion?, Is a Jew permitted to have an abortion?, and At what point is a child considered living.
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