Just listening to the debate going on about head transplant!
An Italian neuro has a Russian patient, who has been paralysed by a terminal wasting muscle desease, and he says he will perform a head transplant in 2017. The Russian has such a poor quality of life, that he is desperate for help.
There is an Engish neuro saying he finds this news appalling and totally inappropriate. He calls it showmanship and vulgar.
Another English neuro doesn`t dismiss the idea as readily, saying perhaps in the future it will become as common as heart transpants. Maybe so, eh?
There have been no test cases done on animals and the neuros say this MUST be done first, with the right results, before it is done on humans.
They were talking about all the paraplegic soldiers who would love to be able to walk again…Tell us about it eh?
Wouldn’t a new spine be a good thing too? I’d hate to get a new head but still have mobility problems because of lesions on the spine. It’d seem like only half the job!!
I realy don,t get this ok so you get a new head will all the ms symptoms go away?
But getting a new head also means that your,re not the same person your,re this other person with a different body (i think) and as the brain is where all your personality is once thats been removed then efectavly you,re dead.
Or is the brain going to be transplanted as well in that case theres no pint in doing the transplant at all.
Wow…yeah, this is making my brain hurt too, lol. Stepping right into science fiction here! I don’t see how it can be a viable option because as Barbara says; new head = different person, surely?!
Also, just the thought freaks me out, it just seems too out there.
Hate the thought of all the monkeys who’s heads would be cut off to test it, too : /
I’m quite sure experiments have been done on animals - definitely dogs, and also by a Russian - although I’ve no idea if it’s the same Russian.
I think the dogs died after a short time, so it was sort of proof-of-concept only, but wasn’t sustainable long term. I think it’s also been done with monkeys.
I don’t recommend you look into this further if you’re easily upset, as the research is quite macabre and distressing, and did (does!) make me wonder what kind of person would want to carry out such grotesque experiments on living creatures.
Speaking for myself, I’m not sure I could cope psychologically with even a hand or face transplant - let alone waking up with a stranger’s body from the neck down.
I think I might more easily accept a robot (bionic) body than a donor one, if it really came to it. I might also be able to stomach (no pun intended) one that was cloned in the lab from my own cells, but it would have to be on the strict understanding that she/it never had the potential to become a sentient being, and was a body only. I can’t think of any circumstances in which it would be acceptable to breed an actual human being for the parts. If it had all the bits, but NO brain, and no consciousness, I wouldn’t feel that it was murder.
Sorry, just realised you said the patient was Russian, not the neuro, so obviously not the same chap who was already up to this with dogs. Dunno if the latter neuro is even still alive - the experiments might have been as long ago as the 60s.
Not gonna Google it, 'cause not feeling like I particularly want to read about it again.
Sorry my post has upset most of you…didnt want that to happen. Just thought you might be interested. I certainly wouldnt want to have a new head either…I was being glib…sorry, once again.
I also think the idea is kind of Frankensteins-ish and not a true possibility.
Of course, the brain and spinal cords would be new and hence a recipient wouldnt be the same person…how could they be?
I know you didn’t upset me, Poll, it certainly is interesting! Though def in an OMGWTF! kind of way, lol.
Frankenstein was who I thought of when Tina asked what kind of person would do these kind of experiments!
If humanity survives, maybe in a few hundred years we’ll not think twice about head transplants. The rich and famous might have a cryogenic closet full of different heads, they’ll be the latest fashion accessory for those who can afford it…
Nay Nay Polly you hav,nt upset me at all just trying to get round the logistics of ot we had the same conversation at ours the other day.
It is very thought provoking and and the ethics are imense this sort of debate could go on for many years and hopefully it wont happen in our lifetime.
This has been in the news a lot reacently and many people will have been talking about it, so dont be sorry we still love you, and keep posting theres nothing wrong with a bit of debateing.
Not upset either, Poll, but did think a word of caution was in order for anyone who might want to read up further about it, as animal lovers, in particular, would find the history of the research pretty gruesome and unacceptable.
Even if it was perfected in humans, to the point it was both low risk and acceptable, I’m guessing it wouldn’t be much use to most people with MS, since the problem is in our brains, so switching bodies wouldn’t fix it. Yes, getting rid of a body with spinal lesions might result in a big short term improvement, but if the MS inflammatory process was still going on in the brain, wouldn’t it eventually spread to the (new) spinal cord, and new body would start developing disabilities, just like before.
So, at best, I can only see it being a temporary reprieve. Unless they’d also figured out how to cure MS, but not reverse damage already done, in which case being able to switch in a new body, which would not, in time, go the same way as the first one, might be seen as an advance.
Still not sure I could overcome the yuck factor. I’m rather attached to my body - literally and metaphorically - and suspect I still will be, even if/when it stops doing anything I ask of it. Would I swap a useless body - but mine - for a stranger’s that works? Hmmm. Got my doubts - even if the stranger’s body was a lot younger and nicer than mine.
I’m not sure I would want someone else’s body I think someone has already swapped my legs for someone else’s and I have enough trouble controlling them I doubt my brain would manage a whole new body .Sue
Think some of you have got this transplant the wrong way round!
The head would be new on your existing body. It would have an un-lesioned brain and a new spinal cord with no lesions either.
But like you say, the existing spinal cord will already have been damaged, so how could a new brain change already there damage?
Oh, I dunno, wish I`d never started this.
Forget it. Wish I could delete it. Its hurting our poor brains trying to make any sense of it...you cant, as it is non-sensical. If it ever becomes a regular transplant, I doubt any of us will be recipients, eh?
Plus this Russian guy, whose body is riddled with a muscle wasting desease, how will a new head/brain fix it?..He must only weigh about 4 stone looking at him. As I said, he`s desperate and clutching at straws no doubt. The neuro man is likely to be just using him to make a name for himself.
My understanding of this was that his head will be transplanted onto a new body but I might have got this wrong. Totally agree it’s a bit Scifi and I think wrong but it must be desperation on his part being trapped in a body which doesn’t work for him anymore.
