20.

 The questions and issues related to xenotransplantation have implications of a very wide social character. There is thus an ethical need to acquire correct information on the topics of greatest public interest with regard to the potential benefits and risks. This information should be communicated to as large a segment of the public as possible. Moreover, by means of debates and public discussions in small and large groups, society itself, through its representatives, should help to identify the conditions under which they would find it acceptable to invest resources and hope in this new therapeutic approach, in light of the scientific uncertainties which are still present and the urgent need to increase the availability of organs which can be transplanted.

A serious ethical commitment on the part of scientists should not neglect to explore therapeutic paths which may represent alternatives to xenotransplantation, such as seem to be promised by many recent discoveries in the field of genetics, as in a longer period the therapeutic use of adult stem cells.