Xenotransplantation is the term for transplanting living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another, and the practice was first tried in the 1980s.
Early in January 2022, as a last-ditch effort to save David Bennett’s life, doctors at the University of Maryland Medical Center transplanted a pig’s heart into him. Bennett, a 57-year-old man, was not eligible for a human heart transplant.
Source: National Hog Farmer, January 24, 2022. Link. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization for Bennett’s surgery on New Year’s Eve through its expanded access (compassionate use) provision. This provision is granted when an experimental medical product, in this case the genetically modified pig’s heart, is the only option available for a patient.