ARE ANIMAL ORGANS SAFE FOR PEOPLE?

CRITICS OF TRANSPLANTS FEAR THAT VIRUSES COULD JUMP FROM OTHER SPECIES TO HUMANS AND TRIGGER DEADLY EPIDEMICS

JEFF GETTY SHOULD BE DEAD BY NOW. He has had HIV for about 15 years. His immune system is barely functioning. And on top of that, in a desperate attempt four weeks ago to reverse the course of his disease, doctors at San Francisco General Hospital infused him with an experimental bone-marrow transplant from a baboon. Immunologists warned that his body would eventually reject the nonhuman tissue and that the operation would almost certainly end his life rather than prolong it. However, Getty is not only alive, but last week he was healthy enough to go home from the hospital. No...

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