head transplant

[ReinnieR]

http://rt.com/news/248473-transplant-head-body-canavero/

[Gabriela]

I read the article and thought, "Huh... This could be really great for people with diseases like that." But I worried that people would start to use it for vanity. And then I watched part of the TEDx talk given by the surgeon, but he was so arrogant I couldn't get through it all. And that makes me really worry.

[Luigi]

Too "Frankenstein" for my taste.

[CatherineM]

This doctor has been quoted as saying that it would be a good option for those with gender dysmorphia. 

[Nihil Obstat]

The technology is currently insufficient. I sure hope he has a plan for 2017, because it is not that far away.

[veritasluxmea]

Doesn't anyone remember when this happened in the past? 

 A devout Roman Catholic, Dr. White was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. He attended mass regularly and prayed before performing surgeries.

...

White also became an adviser to Pope John Paul II on medical ethics. He established the Vatican’s Commission on Biomedical Ethics in 1981 after his appointment to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Under White's leadership, the Commission influenced the church’s stance on brain death and in vitro fertilization.^[1][2]

He nicknamed himself Humble Bob. White founded Metro's neurosurgery department. Many people know him for being the leading target for protesters who called him "Dr. Butcher" and described his experiments as "epitomizing the crude, cruel vivisection industry."

...

In 1970, after a long series of preliminary experiments, White performed a transplant of one monkey head onto the body of another monkey. Because the surgery included severing the spine at the neck, the subjects were paralyzed from the neck down. After the surgery, because the cranial nerves within the brain were still intact and nourished by the circulatory system from the new body, the monkey could still hear, smell, taste, eat and follow objects with its eyes.^[5]

Ultimately, immunorejection caused the monkey to die after nine days.^[6] Dr. Jerry Silver, an expert in regrowing severed nerves, called White's experiments on monkeys, "fairly barbaric."^{[7] (via Wikipedia)}

Two issues off the top of my head I can think of with this surgery: 1) operations on the spine are extremely tricky. Unless they came up with a reliable way to attach the nerves together, it couldn't be feasibly done. You'd most likely end up worse than before. 2) autoimmune rejection would be a lifetime problem, even nowadays people with organ transplants have to take medication and be careful about it. It would be better to deal with autoimmune rejection then, say, live with muscular dystrophy- but still something to be aware of.

[Maggyie]

Doesn't anyone remember when this happened in the past? 

Two issues off the top of my head I can think of with this surgery: 1) operations on the spine are extremely tricky. Unless they came up with a reliable way to attach the nerves together, it couldn't be feasibly done. You'd most likely end up worse than before. 2) autoimmune rejection would be a lifetime problem, even nowadays people with organ transplants have to take medication and be careful about it. It would be better to deal with autoimmune rejection then, say, live with muscular dystrophy- but still something to be aware of.

He did this experiment while at John Carroll, our local Jesuit college. 

[Nihil Obstat]

The idea of a head transplant is not new. There have been more or less successful experiments on animals since 1908. Lots of experimentation in the 50s.

But it seems unethical to attempt it on a human at this point.

[Anastasia13]

We might learn significant things about disease and healing, and this will be good for advancing medical technology.

Do I trust mankind to do good and not to do evil with this? No.

There may be vanity, which may or may not be covered by insurance, and there are identity record issues (finger prints, anyone?). This could make another way for people have sex change surgeries.  On a psychological level, this might cause identity issues by how people see themselves-a short fat person suddenly tall and lean with darker body hair. It has been argued by some that our bodies are part of us, and certainly they can affect how people see us (which according to a theory in an English class I took our identity can be how we perceived how others perceive us), then there could be an adaptation to a new sense of self along with a new physical health and ability from being sick. If a caucasian head is given a black body or vice versa, which race is the person? And who would the child of such a person be most like, the head or the body? Perhaps again, the body being significant as a part of a person and as the temple of the Lord that each carries, this seems abhorrent in the power over that which medicine would be given, along with the greater power over life and death (though I am sure such things were said when medicine first made other advances). Will our perception (or at least mine) advance with technology? I wonder...  If they ever master this procedure of head transplanting, they might theoretically make nanobots to merge the two or develop body substitutes. On an entertainment level, I would predict identity theft thrillers and some great sci-fi.

[truthfinder]

I haven't read the article itself, but I have severe reservation beside the pure franken-nature of this.  Whose soul is it? 

[Credo in Deum]

Wow, people are really afraid of death.

Too soon?

[Maggyie]

Correction, my husband told me he did this while at another local school, Case. He did get an honorary degree from JCU. 

[Ice_nine]

Imagine going to sleep and waking up with someone else's body?!

[i][color=#ff0000]poo[/color][/i]'s crazay

[Socrates]

I doubt this would be successful, but it seems I recall reading somewhere that the Church teaches that head/brain transplants (if possible) would be immoral, as would genital transplants.  

[Ash Wednesday]

This will not end well.