News In Brief

Heart transplant experiment facing pro-con controversy

According to a spokesman for Loma Linda University Medical Center, doctors who implanted a baboon heart in an infant girl four days ago did not look for a human transplant donor and were unaware that one became available the day they performed the ''experimental surgery.'' The infant was reported in critical but stable condition Monday.

The hospital spokesman said the child's parents ''went through the most extensive informed-consent (procedure) ever taken at the medical center,'' including signing a consent agreement twice.

On Sunday, animal-rights activists picketed outside the hospital.