Italian Neurosurgeon says he is ready to transplant heads...

reply to post by Rodinus


If you transplant a man's head onto a woman's body, what does that make them?

Do we go by what they feel like or what they are?

I can see a market for cloning your own body.
I can see people disappear (time to take a tattoo "this body is property of Dumbass")

Transgendering people could be intrested.

Anyway it is weird.

Originally posted by Pixiefyre
reply to post by Rodinus

 

The monkey is really sad, for I think it was 3 days he could see, he could respond, he could feel, but he could not eat.

I can't even look at those images or the 2 headed dog that was created, those poor things

I think you can understand now why i did not want to link that here?

The eating would be extremely difficult taking into account the amount of heavy surgery that was/would be needed to connect the different tissues and trachea etc... (naso gastric feeding would probably be the only solution for at least a month or two!)

Then you have the issues of how the lower part of the body will respond to the brain with all the different nerve connections?

Kindest respects

Rodinus

Kindest respects

Rodinus

Originally posted by Kharron
reply to post by Rodinus

 

If you transplant a man's head onto a woman's body, what does that make them?

Do we go by what they feel like or what they are?

I don't think that they would go that far for ethical reasons, but if that did happen, then i would say Transgender?

Difficult debate that one but probably they would go by what they feel AND are?

Kindest respects

Rodinus

reply to post by TrueBrit

Interesting. I wonder however, how likely it is that an entire donor BODY would be available for such a proceedure. Also, I wonder how well a brain would be able to take command of a new body, how well it would be able to regulate the heartbeat of an unfamiliar heart, how fast it would learn how this body works, what its quirks and ideosyncrasies are, and what they add up to in terms of differences in operation.

Finding donor body would be the least problematic element to all of this.

People onlife support are declared brain dead all the time, yet their body is technically still alive and well.

The machine is keeping it alive, even though the brain is dead (the person is dead). Loads of head traumas, comas, bacterial brain infections, encephalitus where brain injury and death is caused, will mean that plenty of entire bodies will be available for this.

If this works and takes off, i can see a time where countries who still have a death penalty will make legislation where the death sentence is done in such a way to damage and kill the brain only, and leave the body intact, which will be given up for transplant purposes.

Dodgy, as it would probably lead to miscarriages of justice...especially if the condemned is the 'right' tissue match.

At first though, i seriously doubt that a head would be transplanted onto a donor body and the body will function normally..at least at first, i'd imagine the head would be transplanted and the person would then live as a quadriplegic, basically not having control of any limbs or movement, except the normal life functions of heart and lung function and other autonomous stuff like that.

MUCH better than death, but not exactly getting a new functioning body either...the body would be acting more like a biological but very limited life support system.

Once the technology improves, then it might be possible to restore complete and normal function to the donor body, but i don't think any of them will be running around playing football in the early years.

At first though, i seriously doubt that a head would be transplanted onto a donor body and the body will function normally..at least at first, i'd imagine the head would be transplanted and the person would then live as a quadriplegic, basically not having control of any limbs or movement, except the normal life functions of heart and lung function and other autonomous stuff like that.

In the second link of my first post is the review written by Sergio Canavero, he actually thinks that it is possible to repair the spinal column by means of of fusogens, special membrane-fusion substances, meaning that there is an eventual possibility that the person may be able to move and carry out certain everyday tasks. (although i guess not to a 100% level!)

Another interesting quote i came across was from Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley who said the following :

"But how well will we as a society accept the concept that human brain transplantation involves transplanting the mind and spirit? Are we willing to acknowledge that the human brain is the physical repository of the soul, something this operation implies?"

Kindest respects

Rodinus