They’re not making the pig more human, they’re removing the markers of ‘foreign’ that would make it an immune target. So it’s a nice vanilla organ that minimally attracts the attention of the immune system.
> Three genes were turned off that might otherwise have triggered an immediate immune rejection – the recognition of a pig organ as coming from a different species. Six human genes were added to prevent blood from coagulating in the heart, improve molecular compatibility and reduce the risk of rejection.
> One final gene was turned off to keep the pig from growing too large.
So they actually did make the pig a tiny bit human.
Just removing some sugars can't possibly work, since the pig heart will lack correct MHC class I molecules, which will make it a target. So the patient will need permanent immune-suppression.
Plenty of transplant recipients from deceased or living human donors are on permanent immunosuppression. Depending on the organ and the person, day-to-day life can be almost completely normal. Source: I am a liver transplant recipient.
>how do you know that removing this one gene doesn't unlock consciousness?
i'm not the poster you're replying to, but for me the answer is this :
consciousness appears to me to be a constellation of traits rather than a trait itself that would be easily acquired with a genetic shift.
One could then say : 'What if the one we flip is the thing that finishes the constellation of traits that activates consciousness?' , and sadly I must confess that I believe that if that were to happen to an entity without sufficient communications methods that it would probably remain unknown and subject to whatever experiences whatever sensory organs it may have provides it, while we remain entirely unaware for some time.
Also, a point that I agree upon by the poster who replied to you with me ; we don't seem to hold conscious entities in very high regard -- only human ones.
A strange idea but theoretically possible. Although it wasn't one of the genes targeted in this study, humans are the only animals which have the Neu4Ac form of the sialic acid sugar, instead of Neu5Ac, and the brain is one of the regions that is most heavily sialiated in humans and could be one of the things that sets us apart.
> Three genes were turned off that might otherwise have triggered an immediate immune rejection – the recognition of a pig organ as coming from a different species. Six human genes were added to prevent blood from coagulating in the heart, improve molecular compatibility and reduce the risk of rejection.
> One final gene was turned off to keep the pig from growing too large.
So they actually did make the pig a tiny bit human.