xenotransplantation

(Newser) - The first person to have a pig kidney transplanted into his body was on Wednesday discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital. Rick Slayman, 62, who underwent the transplant about two weeks ago, will continue to recover at home, CBS News reports. "This moment—leaving the hospital today with one of...

(Newser) - The second person to receive a transplanted heart from a pig has died, nearly six weeks after the highly experimental surgery, his Maryland doctors announced Tuesday. Lawrence Faucette, 58, was dying from heart failure and ineligible for a traditional heart transplant when he received the genetically modified pig heart on...

(Newser) - Surgeons have transplanted a pig's heart into a dying man in a bid to prolong his life—only the second patient to ever undergo such an experimental feat. Two days after the Wednesday procedure , the man was cracking jokes and able to sit in a chair, Maryland doctors said...

(Newser) - Pretty soon, pig parts might become common in operating rooms in addition to kitchens and barbecues, though the ones in question would be genetically modified. Researchers at NYU performed successful transplants of genetically modified pig hearts into the bodies of two brain-dead patients. The AP describes the deceased recipients as...