Published in the February issue of Nature Medicine and the January 22 issue of Nature, the call for a moratorium was announced in conjunction with a meeting sponsored by the FDA and other government agencies in late January to address xenotransplantation. One concern the authors cite is that xenotransplantation could promote the transfer of viruses from animals to humans, a possibility raised by several researchers within the past year. Nature Medicine reported that the appeal by the scientists might delay publication of revised xenotransplantation guidelines published by the Department of Health and Human Services. Draft guidelines were published in the Federal Register in September 1996, and the final guidelines are expected later this year. The two-day FDA meeting, which was designated, in part, to shape xenotransplantation policy in the U.S., sparked considerable debate on the science and ethics of xenotransplantation.
Full reports are available online, as listed below.