Posted by Al Gordon on October 02, 2001 at 12:48:53:
In Reply to: Re: Transplants From Pigs to People posted by Steve on October 02, 2001 at 09:06:22:
Steve, I think there isn't much I can add to this argument. You are 100% right that to apply the Precautionary Principle consistently would mean that we would never try anything new, as it is impossible to prove the absence of risk. Anyone who has taken Logic 101 knows that it is impossible to prove a negative, so what kind of idiot makes the impossible a pre-requisite for action?
I know Jonathan Allan quite well, having met him at several conferences, and he is a nice guy, but he seems to have found that he can garner attention by taking an alarmist anti-xeno stand. And so, having found a comfortable niche, he stays there. I have asked him on several occasions to address the issues you raise, and he basically falls back on the old "We just don't know" argument. If I had heard some scientific basis for his alarm, then I would be very willing to listen. Unfortunately, one doesn't need science to create alarm and fear in the minds of the public or regulators.
I still wonder how many millions of deaths would have happened if we had applied the Precautionary Principle to the discovery of insulin. The idea of injecting "the filthy juices of pigs and cows" (as the critics of the day described insulin therapy) into humans every day for life was a much bigger step than clinical trials of transplanted pig islets.
In summary, I have yet to hear a single defensible argument supporting a prohibition on well-designed clinical trials of cellular xenografts.
Al