Activists Protest Use of Pig Liver in Transplant

Dozens of angry animal rights activists demonstrated Thursday in front of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center against an experimental liver transplant that necessitated the killing of a pig and ended in the death of a Burbank woman.

As a few passing cars honked in support, members of the Last Chance for Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals groups waved signs reading: “Cedars is Sick” and “Dr. Frankenstein lives.”

A pig liver was used to keep Susan Fowler, 26, alive for more than 30 hours until a human liver could be obtained. Fowler died Monday night on the operating table before the human organ could be transplanted.

The activists said a “defenseless animal” should not have been killed for a futile operation.

John Young, a veterinarian who oversees 17 physicians conducting animal research at Cedars-Sinai, defended Monday’s surgery.

“I believe (animals) are available for us to use if they are used responsibly,” Young said. “The potential benefit, which would be restoring a young, vivacious 26-year-old woman back to health, outweighs the costs.”

But June Averseng, a member of Last Chance for Animals, said: “We have to care about all life. Animals are the same as helpless children and have the right to be protected.”

Bill Dyer, another member of that group, said costly experimental operations are conducted while millions of people lack basic health care.

“If we used our money for preventive medicine, instead of animal testing and these transplant operations, we could cut down on disease,” Dyer said.

“We have the lowest infant survival rate of any developed country in the world,” said Dr. Richard McLellan, a member of both groups. “Yet we’re going after these costly miracle operations that keep a person alive for one day or even one hour.”

McLellan, an emergency physician at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, said the killing of animals to keep human beings alive is irresponsible. He called the surgery “a publicity move” to bring more grants to Cedars-Sinai.

Fowler was the second person to receive a pig liver transplant while awaiting a liver from a human donor.

A Maryland woman was the first to have her circulatory system connected to a pig liver. A human liver was later transplanted and she survives, Young said.

The pig liver implanted into Fowler was functioning adequately before she died, Young said.

“We see the operation as a success because she died 30 hours after she might have without it,” Young said.