Community Chat

[stuyvesant]

I'm not providing any links, but this has been in the news.  If you search my thread title, you can read about the story.

Basically, a very ill man, with no hopeful prognosis, is willing to spend a lot of millions to have his head grafted onto a viable body.

The scientists who are doing this, think it can be done.  But I think most of us know, the most hopeful outcome from this operation is that the body and brain may be kept oxygenated for a while.

What I want to discuss, is this worthwhile?  The guy thinks it's his best shot at a life.

I think this guy is dreaming, about somebody in his situation a 100 years from now, and wants to start the search for knowledge.  I think he's picking an esoteric way of serving humanity, and ending his suffering.

[151949]

I think this was a science fiction movie!

[Cakers3]

What the heck is a viable body?

This sounds like something out of the X-Files.

[Plaid Pants2]

I find the thought of a head transplant to be a bit creepy.

But, I guess it would be the one time that a person could say, "I have the body of an athlete", and actually mean it.

But on the flip side, while I am an organ and tissue donor (I have the box checked on my driver's license, and my family knows that that is my preference), I don't know how I would feel if I saw someone else with my (dead) loved ones body.

The way that medicine is progressing, this may be common place in a hundred years, and all progress has to start someplace, but yeah, for now, this "head transplant" thing makes me feel uncomfortable.

[SharkE]

Who wants to live forever anyway ?

[Bri36]

Has he found doctors to actually do this?   

[Cakers3]

Actually now I'm reminded of the Golden Girls episode where they dreamed about their heads being frozen waiting to be transplanted.  LOL

[SeaMaiden]

It may sound like science fiction... but much science fiction becomes the future eventually.

 I see this as  a very plausible thing with all the transplants now being preformed.  I remember when the first face transplant happened years ago  at first it was also looked at as sci fi...... and now many many have been done and are helping lives be better.

 Why not a head transplant? Yes it will take many years to perfect the procedure... and probably many lives.  But down the road it may be the way to give say those with bodies that do not move or are racked with cancer  a chance to live on in a body that works.

[candys mine]

Interesting.  Someone was bound to do it sometime.   From a purely medical view the proceedure of re- attatching all those nerves from the spine / brain stem to the other spine and have any maintainable nerve communication would be an achievement. Everyone needs to be realistic and go into this with all the cards on the table.   Prayers of peace to both people involved.

[nomless]

A story I read said a team of doctors in China is gearing up to give this a try within a year. Other doctors are skeptical, pointing out the difficulty of getting the spinal cord to work. They point out that if the team feels they have a solution to the spinal cord issue, why not devote their time to helping those who are paralyzed due to spinal cord injury?