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Head transplants. Are they for real?!



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relish




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Jun 13 2015, 11:43 pm
http://www.theguardian.com/sci.....avero
Summary of story:
An Italian surgeon believes he can transplant a person's head onto a donor body, by 2017. Most of his plan is theory, and there is little evidence either way. He already has his first volunteer to undergo surgery.
Do you think it's ethical?
Do you think it will work?
Why?
I just can't wrap my head around the idea at all.
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ROFL




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Jun 13 2015, 11:59 pm
Don't see how it can work in today's medical knowledge. If they can't fix spinal injury then how can this work. I understand the person who wants to be the first a patient. He needs a body's that's works. But I don't understand how they medically can do it yet.
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DrMom




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 1:10 am
relish wrote:
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/13/neurosurgeon-first-head-transplant-america-sergio-canavero
Summary of story:
An Italian surgeon believes he can transplant a person's head onto a donor body, by 2017. Most of his plan is theory, and there is little evidence either way. He already has his first volunteer to undergo surgery.
Do you think it's ethical?
Do you think it will work?
Why?
I just can't wrap my head around the idea at all.

Sounds like you are a prime candidate for getting yourself a new, more wrappable head. Get thee to Italy.
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groovy1224




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 1:12 am
I don't think it's legit. When I was around 8, I tried performing this exact procedure on 2 barbies. It did not end well. Of course, medical technology has come such a long way since then..
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Rutabaga




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 3:59 am
I'm reminded of a character in one of L. Frank Baum's lesser known Oz books who has a closetful of heads to choose from. Google Princess Langwidere.
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 4:08 am
Rutabaga wrote:
I'm reminded of a character in one of L. Frank Baum's lesser known Oz books who has a closetful of heads to choose from. Google Princess Langwidere.


Yes!! I read the entire series as a child and not that long ago read a number of volumes to my youngest DD who is fascinated by the OZ books. Langwidere is definitely one of Baum's more interesting characters. The whole notion is very unsettling and disturbing which is probably why the character is so memorable.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 10:21 am
I've no doubt he will do it. That doesn't mean that the subject will survive. As ROFL pointed out, severed spinal cords cannot yet be repaired. Let's hope the person who volunteered to be the first subject comes to his senses. He's got two years.
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relish




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 10:35 am
DrMom wrote:
Sounds like you are a prime candidate for getting yourself a new, more wrappable head. Get thee to Italy.

Rolling Laughter Rolling Laughter Rolling Laughter Rolling Laughter Rolling Laughter
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mirror




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 7:14 pm
Google spinal cord injuries and Christopher Reeve. His body was intact.
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MagentaYenta




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 7:25 pm
I just recently read of a successful p*e*n*I*s transplant that has resulted in a pregnancy. Medicine makes progress every day.
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relish




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 7:52 pm
So here is a question I was grappling with:
If "head a" from paraplegic body gets transplanted to "donor body b" that had full function in its lifetime. Who is to say that "head a" s brain will be able to learn to control "donor body b"?

Why is there no concern of motor pathway formation and lack thereof?
How many stroke patients have lost use of their limbs permanently because they could not relearn new motor pathways once the old ones were destroyed?
When a person loses a limb, the motor map of that limb is overtaken by the nearest body position on the homunculus. Meaning, use or disuse leads to change in makeup. How in the world do they intend to make this work?
Why would anyone agree to risk their life for an outcome that is so completely unknown?
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causemommysaid




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 8:02 pm
relish wrote:
So here is a question I was grappling with:
If "head a" from paraplegic body gets transplanted to "donor body b" that had full function in its lifetime. Who is to say that "head a" s brain will be able to learn to control "donor body b"?

Why is there no concern of motor pathway formation and lack thereof?
How many stroke patients have lost use of their limbs permanently because they could not relearn new motor pathways once the old ones were destroyed?
When a person loses a limb, the motor map of that limb is overtaken by the nearest body position on the homunculus. Meaning, use or disuse leads to change in makeup. How in the world do they intend to make this work?
Why would anyone agree to risk their life for an outcome that is so completely unknown?


If someone is laying in bed and can't move a muscle they really have nothing to lose.
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FranticFrummie




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 8:06 pm
I have migraines AND fibromyalgia. I can't decide which part of me I'd like to swap!

At this point, I think my best bet is reincarnation. I hope I'll come back as a newt. Newts are cool. Wink
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relish




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 8:07 pm
causemommysaid wrote:
If someone is laying in bed and can't move a muscle they really have nothing to lose.

Besides their life! Which apparently means something, or these people would have given up long ago.
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youngishbear




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 8:13 pm
FranticFrummie wrote:
I have migraines AND fibromyalgia. I can't decide which part of me I'd like to swap!

At this point, I think my best bet is reincarnation. I hope I'll come back as a newt. Newts are cool. Wink


I had to laugh and hug you.

As usual, you see the humor in the pain.

Hug

I hope your aches and pains go away without risky surgeries. Ice cream

ETA: dunno why that ice cream landed here, but it looks good so I'll leave it.
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zaq




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 8:25 pm
causemommysaid wrote:
If someone is laying in bed and can't move a muscle they really have nothing to lose.


except their sight, hearing, sense of smell, taste, touch, memory and life.
A friend of mine who had been diagnosed with the beginnings of the condition that ultimately took her life told me "I am not afraid. if I can't walk, I can sit, if I can't sit I can lie. If I can't speak I can read, if I can't read I can listen, if I can't listen I can think. There will always be something I can do to make life worth living."
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MagentaYenta




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 8:33 pm
A friend of mine is bedridden due to MS, she also has early onset alzheimers. She doesn't know her name or who anyone is. I'm glad her husband respects her life and hasn't turned her over to being some researchers lab rat.
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mums_the_word




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Jun 14 2015, 9:55 pm
Reminds me of this:

Quote:
Dear Kind Stranger,

I am a very sick little boy. My mother is typing this for me, because I can't.

She is crying. Don't cry, Mommy! Mommy is always sad, but she says it's not my fault. I asked her if it was God's fault, but she didn't answer, and only started crying harder, so I don't ask her that anymore.

The reason she is so sad is that I'm so sick. I was born without a body. It doesn't hurt, except when I go to sleep. The doctors gave me an artificial body. My body is a burlap bag filled with leaves. The doctors said that was the best they could do on account of us having no money or insurance. I would like to have a body transplant, but we need more money.

Mommy doesn't work because she said employers don't hire crying people.

I said, "Don't cry, Mommy," and she hugged my burlap body. Mommy always gives me hugs, even though she's allergic to burlap, and it chafes her real bad.

I hope you will help me. You can help me if you forward this e-mail. Dr. Johansen said if you forward this e-mail then Bill Gates will team up with AOL and do a survey with NASA. Then the astronauts will collect prayers from schoolchildren all over America and take them up to space so that the angels can hear them better.

Maybe one day I will be able to play baseball. Or maybe just use my lungs and heart, when the doctors make them. The doctors said that every time you forward this letter, the astronauts can take another prayer to the angels.

Please help me. Mommy is so sad, and I want a body. I don't want my leaves to rot before I turn 10. If you don't forward this e-mail, that's OK. Mommy says you're a mean heartless jerk who doesn't care about a poor little boy with only a head. She says that if you don't stew in the raw pit of your own guilt-ridden stomach, she hopes you die a long, slow horrible death so you can burn forever in hell. What kind of person are you that you can't take five minutes to forward this to all your friends so that they can feel guilt and shame for the rest of their day, and then maybe help a poor, bodiless 9-year-old boy?

Please help me. This really sucks. I try to be happy but it's hard.

I wish I had a puppy. I wish I could hold a puppy.

Thank You.
Billy 'Smiles' Evans,
The boy with just a head.
And a burlap sack for a body.
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