by Alan Berger and Gil Lamont

About the author: Alan Berger is executive director and Gil Lamont is senior editor of Animal Issues, the magazine of the Animal Protection Institute, a nonprofit organization that advocates the humane treatment of all animals.

More than at any time in history, many of us today have the opportunity to live longer and healthier lives. Significant advances in immunosuppression and other techniques have greatly increased the success of human-to-human transplants (“allografts”) to replace worn-out body organs. Too bad there aren’t enough body parts to go around.

Despite encouraging organ donors—even the Department of Health and Human Services has a web site devoted to the issue at “http://www.organdonor.gov”—the number of waiting recipients is climbing steadily. In 1988, the United Network...