Political considerations of controversial medical issues: xenotransplantation and society. A presentation of the work of the Norwegian national working group on xenotransplantation.

Based on recommendations of the Norwegian Government, the Storting decided a preliminary prohibition against any medical treatment of humans with the use of biological material from animals in 1999. This moratorium should be in effect until 01.01.2003. During this time the issue of xenotransplantation, with its many problems and controversies, should be thoroughly elucidated and debated. A xenotransplantation working group was established in April 2000 as a consequence of this decision, and in many ways I think that the composition of this group was decisive for the final conclusion. The members of this group were chosen from a wide range of expert areas in society, such as law, human and veterinary medicine, ethics and animal welfare and risk management. The chairwoman of this working group, and the author of the current paper, owned experience from a political career at a national level, and I am currently the governor of the county of Nord-Trøndelag, Norway. In the following paper the work of this group will be presented. This paper addresses the media reactions, the political considerations and decisions, further development and the preliminary conclusions regarding the issue of xenotransplantation in the Norwegian society. The working group The names of the members of the working group are: