Team of medical surgeons performs a surgical operation in a hospital to illustrate a kidney transplant surgery. By Acronym/stock.adobe.com
Medicine made an astounding breakthrough this week: Towana Looney, a woman from Alabama, is alive after two months with a genetically modified pig kidney. She is the fifth American to receive the cutting-edge procedure.
“It’s like a new beginning,” she told The Associated Press. Right away, “the energy I had was amazing. To have a working kidney—and to feel it—is unbelievable.”
Why did Looney agree to the procedure, and how does it work? Her story will inspire you.
Looney’s kidney transplant—from a pig
Over 100,000 people are on the US transplant list—most of them need kidneys. Every year, thousands die waiting for organs from donors. Many people’s bodies reject foreign organs even when they do receive them. Humans can easily survive with one kidney, which is why folks can donate one while still alive.
Looney, however, had only one kidney. Pregnancy complications caused high blood pressure, which damaged her one kidney. Tests showed her body had rejected every potential donor. In 2023, she applied for an emergency experiment—after many years on dialysis.
The highly experimental procedure has strict regulations. Other subjects had tragically died within two months of the experiment (not necessarily from the transplant), but Looney began the procedure much healthier than them.
The Doctor who led the transplant said, “If you saw her on the street, you would have no idea that she’s the only person in the world walking around with a pig organ inside them that’s functioning.”
Looney’s joyful spirit is palpable in her interviews. “I’m superwoman,“ she told the AP. She joked about outpacing her family on long walks around NYC. “It’s a new take on life.”
What is xenotransplantation? Are there bioethical concerns?
According to the FDA (PDF), xenotransplantation is “any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of (a) live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source, or (b) human body fluids, cells, tissues or organs that have had ex vivo contact with live nonhuman animal cells, tissues or organs.”
This involves genetically modifying the organ from the pig so it matches better with the human recipient. Xenotransplantation is different from the highly unethical area of research of a human-animal hybrid, where each cell has genetic material from the human and animal.
The FDA outlines the greatest risk being in cross-contamination of species (PDF), which could result in new infectious diseases if not monitored carefully. Infectious agents which are not detectable in animals may become pathogenic in humans. So, the scientists and experts perform a battery of tests with extreme care.
Dr. Jim Denison and Jackson McNeese have written elsewhere more broadly about bioethics. Dr. Denison argues that using CRISPR and other methods to edit genes, as well as organ transplants, are generally ethical to use medically, as long as they don’t potentially pass on genetic material to the next generation.
Since so many people sit on the organ wait list, scientists are developing procedures and raising particularly clean pigs, working toward transplanting hearts as well as kidneys. Until it becomes more widely available (if it ever does), we must rely on the sacrifice of organ donors.
The sacrificial love of kidney donors
Although a highly personal decision, to me, becoming a registered organ donor is a no-brainer for Christians. Our body will be resurrected whole and complete when Christ returns regardless of its state at or after death. Until then, it’s going into the dirt anyway. Registering as an organ donor means if you die, but your organs are preserved, doctors can remove and preserve them for people who need them.
Some heroes will donate their kidneys for their relatives, or even some, for strangers. What sacrificial love! And, a detail I left out of the story of Looney, is that she had one kidney to start because she had donated her first kidney, giving it to her mother in 1991.
Looney urged another man considering the procedure to pray; “go off your faith, what your heart tells you.” She said to the AP, “I love talking to people, I love helping people. I want to be, like, some educational piece” for doctors and scientists to be able to help people.
Such a story should inspire us—she donated her kidney and then faced an early death because of it. Now, with joy and strength, she bravely underwent a new, risky medical procedure. As a trailblazer, Looney may help pave the way for countless lives to be saved. Such procedures are never without drawbacks or risks, but the potential for many extensions of a healthy, vibrant life is exciting.
Love and hope
The issue is somewhat personal for me. Because of a congenital defect (and an earlier botched surgery), doctors removed my right kidney three years ago. I’m alive and well—humans can function completely normally with just one kidney. However, if something happens to my left kidney, I’m out of luck—but not out of hope, because of the sacrificial love of people like Looney.
Of course, even if I couldn’t find a transplant (human or otherwise), the greatest act of sacrificial love guarantees my resurrection and a return to my true home with Christ.
Who do you know who needs that guarantee today? And if it’s you, know that God stands ready to welcome you into his salvation the moment you ask. Will you?
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