However, xenotransplantation brings the risk of transplanting animal viruses and thus creating new human diseases.

ECONOMIST: Organ transplants

Ministers have set up the UK Xenotransplantation Interim Regulatory Authority (UKXIRA) to advise them on such issues.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Pig organs may be safe for humans

Xenotransplantation, as this idea is known, really would increase the supply of organs, but it is a controversial idea.

ECONOMIST: Organ transplants

Most of those interested in xenotransplantation are considering pigs, rather than baboons or chimpanzees, because pigs are easier and cheaper to rear, and because harvesting pigs for organs is thought to pose fewer ethical difficulties.

ECONOMIST: Pigged out