Public Attitudes Toward Xenotransplantation in South Korea: A 2023 Survey Study

Background: Xenotransplantation is a promising field to solve the problem of insufficient allograft and has been actively studied in Korea. However, there are a number of ethical, legal, and social issues to consider, and it is necessary to know the public attitudes regarding them. Methods: A Computer Aided Web Interview consisting of 22 questionnaire items was conducted to investigate the attitudes of Korean related to xenotransplantation. Participants were selected from Hankook Research MS (Master Sample) panel. A total of 1007 sets of data were finally collected and analyzed with SPSS. A statistical analysis was performed using an independent t-test and chi-square method. Results: 72.9% of the respondents were positive about xenotransplantation, while 22.2% negative. 61.7% said that they would accept xenotransplantation for incurable diseases. 64.4% agreed with genetically modified pigs for organ resource. 61% agreed that the brain dead could be transplanted first for research purpose, while 32.7% disagreed. The ratio of response that the risk of zoonotic infection is important was 97.2%; the safety issue due to immunosuppression 98.7%; the human identity issue after transplantation 67.4%; and the animal right issue 51.6%. Men were more favorable to xenotransplantation than women on all but one item (stigmatization). There was no significant difference between religions except for the human identity issue. Conclusion: Korean people are favorable to xenotransplantation as a therapeutic option and also positive with the use of pig even genetically modified in spite of the issue of animal rights. They are also positive with the idea of using the brain dead as study subject for xenotransplantation, which is currently forbidden in Korea.