First head transplant

[Shahaku]

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/head-transplant-volunteer-might-face-fate-more-terrifying-death

Thoughts?

[Gleb]

Re: First head transplant

I read of it. Scary. Why would anyone do this? Except for fun. Or if their body doesn't work properly.

[Prickly Pear]

Re: First head transplant

I read of it. Scary. Why would anyone do this? Except for fun. Or if their body doesn't work properly.

Except for fun. I send you a million virtual purring kittens for this.

[anunitu]

Re: First head transplant

A bit radical...But the first heart transplant was too....but sounds like science fiction still.

[B. de Corbin]

Re: First head transplant

I don't believe that it is currently possible to be successful with this...

[anunitu]

Re: First head transplant

Give it time,and they will be able to use a 3d printer to make you a body...they did that for a rib cage transplant believe it or not..

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Ok found the story.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-1...b-cage/6773188

[Gleb]

Re: First head transplant

Except for fun. I send you a million virtual purring kittens for this.

I don't take the risk.

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: First head transplant

If this works, it'll start the most bizzarre crime wave ever.

[thalassa]

Re: First head transplant

Give it time,and they will be able to use a 3d printer to make you a body...they did that for a rib cage transplant believe it or not..

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Ok found the story.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-1...b-cage/6773188

Now this I could see working better than a whole body trandplant. Give us a decade of doing organ and limb transplants with bioprinted organs and limbs, and then graduated to a bioprinted body with your own DNA and based on your preexisting bauplan...minimize rejection and (not sure what the technical term might be) what I'll call anatomical confusion (hey, my brain learned to walk with bigger feet and shorter legs, my center of gravity is off...and crap, I'm sick of hitting my head on things because I'm taller now...etc).

My big question/doubt for this plan is the problem of the spinal cord...

We still don't have a handle on this, for say...patients with spinal injuries. Compounding that with the problems of organ transplants, increased by at least 90% (the amount of the body being replaced)...I can't see trading the (no matter how crappy) body you got for being a quadrapelegic:

Although the most obvious symptom is impairment to the limbs, functioning is also impaired in the torso. This can mean a loss or impairment in controlling bowel and bladder, sexual function, digestion, breathing and other autonomic functions. Furthermore, sensation is usually impaired in affected areas. This can manifest as numbness, reduced sensation or burning neuropathic pain.

Secondarily, because of their depressed functioning and immobility, tetraplegics are often more vulnerable to pressure sores, osteoporosis and fractures, frozen joints, spasticity, respiratory complications and infections, autonomic dysreflexia, deep vein thrombosis, and cardiovascular disease.
Severity depends on both the level at which the spinal cord is injured and the extent of the injury.

An individual with an injury at C1 (the highest cervical vertebra, at the base of the skull), will probably lose function from the neck down and be ventilator-dependent. An individual with a C7 injury may lose function from the chest down but still retain use of the arms and much of the hands.

The extent of the injury is also important. A complete severing of the spinal cord will result in complete loss of function from that vertebra down. A partial severing or even bruising of the spinal cord results in varying degrees of mixed function and paralysis. A common misconception with Tetraplegia is that the victim cannot move legs, arms or any of the major function; this is often not the case. Some tetraplegic individuals can walk and use their hands, as though they did not have a spinal cord injury, while others may use wheelchairs and they can still have function of their arms and mild finger movement, again, that varies on the spinal cord damage.

It is common to have movement in limbs, such as the ability to move the arms but not the hands or to be able to use the fingers but not to the same extent, as before the injury. Furthermore, the deficit in the limbs may not be the same on both sides of the body; either left or right side may be more affected, depending on the location of the lesion on the spinal cord.

(lazy source)

And honestly, I think we should call it a body transplant, not a head transplant...the head holds the brain, and the brain is the organ that is the basis for our personality and subsequently our personhood.

[anunitu]

Re: First head transplant

Not to mention cell memory as shown in a very weird movie where the body retained its memory so both personality's remained in the combined body and head(If you know the name of that movie,post it)

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Maybe it was this one...cheezy movie..but you know..The Thing with Two Heads
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069372/

[B. de Corbin]

Re: First head transplant

Not to mention cell memory as shown in a very weird movie where the body retained its memory so both personality's remained in the combined body and head(If you know the name of that movie,post it)

One of Heinlein's books had that as an issue... Can't remember which one, off hand... I Will Fear No Evil

[Shahaku]

Re: First head transplant

It sounds like an unlikely experiment to me. I don't see it working
And how are they going to find a body? Ethically yips have to choose a body of someone that's already died and if they're dead it would have had to be completely for a reason related to the heador the body would be useless. And what are the chances of finding a perfect donor?

[anunitu]

Re: First head transplant

Yup,body would not fit in a beer cooler...they always carry the heart in a cooler in the movies...

[DragonsFriend]

Re: First head transplant

So far it has been impossible to connect the nerve bundle from the brain to the body. You would be a paralyzed deaf mute. It's not really living to me but others may have different views.
It might be a good punishment for serial killers and child molesters.

[Shahaku]

Re: First head transplant

I don't think you would be deaf and mute. Your brain controls speech and hearing above the spinal cord. So long as the brain continues to work you'd have to cut off the connection far above the neck line. Potentially some direct connections between brain and organs