Scientists are waiting for the go-ahead from authorities to begin clinical trials that would see them grow and harvest human organs in pigs.
With a global shortage of suitable organ donors, the move could be a massive breakthrough for the medical industry.
Recent experiments in China have shown monkeys can survive for an extended period of time with organ transplants from pigs.
Pigs are an ideal candidate to help as their organs, specifically the heart and kidneys, are very similar to that of a humans.
But researchers now need to move onto human trials to ensure the procedure is safe for mankind.
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Doctors are at the ready to at least try the controversial procedure in clinical trials, but are waiting on official approval.
Zhao Zijian, director of the Metabolic Disease Research Centre at Nanjing Medical University in Jiangsu, told South China Morning Post: “We have patients dying from organ failure and their desperate relatives pleading for them to have the chance to live.
“But when we turn to the authorities in charge of approving the clinical trials, all we get is silence.
“We understand it must be very hard for the government to make a decision, but it’s time we got an answer.”
He told the South China Morning Post the trials could be as soon as two years away.
China is also home to the largest pig cloning factory in the world – BGI – which produces up to 500 cloned piglets annually.
Scientists believe this is the perfect set up – the cloners grow the pigs and the doctors add human organs.
One researcher from BGI said: “This is unmatched by any other country. The world will eventually depend on China for organs.”
However, cloning is a lengthy and difficult procedure.
The researcher, who asked not to be named, said: “It can take one to three years of intensive training to get a lab worker up to speed on cloning.”