To be excited about the possibility of a successful head transplant!

[BorrowedHeart]

I am genuinely excited about this, even if it doesn't work there is still so much to learn. What are people thoughts on it? How does it sit with you?

I'm excited but that's because my daughter has had a heart transplant and even before hen transplants have fascinated me, if this works it could mean so much to people who aren't able to move and might want to, even just to know if it can work is enough for me.

They couldn't attempt it, its not possible now, it certainly wasn't then.

Just because something can be done, doesn't mean that it should.

There is a vast difference between organ transplant which enables someone to live a comparitively normal life to that which they experienced prior to transplant, and having to essentially swap your body for a new one. How would that work then, assuming that it could be done with all connections re-established etc? You'd be an entirely different person from the one you were before. The personality would be there, but the looks, the voice, the mannerisms would all be that of the dead person. And the children would be those of the dead person. It's weird enough when you photoshop a head on to a different body, imagine doing it for real.....

casey did you notice where I said a frayed rope? That's the millions of nerves similarity.

I understand the issues surrounding it, I just feel excited that we are even able to try. I understand about less organs, however I believe in time the organ donations will be going up and the publicity of this might even help with that.

Have the institution's ethics committee approved this?

What about the issues around reproduction that were raised earlier? Maybe anti-rejection drugs interfere with fertility anyway, I don't know, but what are the ethics around reproducing using someone else's sperm/eggs?

Thing is, I'm sure the person recidivist a new body won't be thinking about all that and will just be happy to walk.

As far as I know anti rejection drugs don't interfere with the ability to get pregnant but I'm not sure if they interfere with a pregnancy.

I just feel bad for all the animals they are going to try this on in the hope it will work.

These things should be thought about in advance rather than just being happy that the recipient can walk. Which they won't be able to. If this nerve glue worked then it would be possible to treat spinal cord injuries as they are, rather than need to do a body transplant.

I'm not excited at all, the man who volunteered is essentially committing suicide, which is his choice but not something I'm excited about.

I'm registered on the donor list. if anything happened to my child I'd give his organs but I wouldn't allow someone to have his whole body- I don't know why.

It makes me think of that film with John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, Face/ Off.

I think some of you aren't understanding the difference between a surgical cut and something torn. In the case of spinal cord injuries it is usually traumatic, pieces everywhere or some missing etc. With it being sliced with this nano blade (I think it's something like that) it is controlled and neat and therefore easier to put back together.

Like for instance it's not always easy to fix something but replacing it is easier, like my daughters heart. There was no way to fix it and it was easier (although still difficult) to just put a new heart into her body.

The guy who is volunteering is going to die anyway, I think he is a brave man and I thank him for doing this. I get being worried about the animals that have been experimented on (mice in this case) however, if it were not for either animal testing or cadaver testing way way back in the Victorian era, a lot of you would be dead now.

user I agree, I could easily donate my child's organs but I could not donate her body, my own body however I could easily donate, I've been considering donating it for science anyway, either that or cremation, I think it would be hard for my family though.

I think YOU aren't understanding that its not possible to put it back together, whether cut or torn or anything else. It's nowhere near possible.

Even if you physically joined the spinal cord nerves, they aren't going to magically start working again and allowing nerve signals to travel through them. They don't regenerate.

DH and I were talking about this earlier. He said "That's ridiculous why would someone want a new head?" I said "Try to think of a reason why someone would do this.... " and he couldn't. For ages.

When I said it wasn't someone getting a new head, but a person (head) getting a new body, the lightbulb went on.

Bless.

assasin good point, in my daughters case she won't feel a heart attack due to the nerves being cut, although after so many years they can repair themselves, maybe that might happen?

Aww google that made me laugh, bless him.

Unfortunately it won't Borrowed because spinal cord nerves don't regenerate like other nerves eventually do. If this body transplant doctor had really solved that problem it would be a huge medical breakthrough and it would be a cure for people with existing spinal cord injuries. They would then have no need for a body transplant.

This guy is such a quack. It's repulsive. I'm all for experimentation and advancements but this is truly horrific.

And as someone else said, ultimately it's a bit pointless because there's already a shortage of organ donors so how many perfect bodies are you going to get? Any transplant committee is going to be more in favour of multiple lives saved by individual organs from one body rather than one life saved. The only way i could see this happening is a wealthy individual buying someone's body (with or without their consent...). Horrible.

This really gives me the creeps and i cant see how it will work.

Also if in some crazy sci fi world it did what about the mental implications. I read about someone who had to have their transplanted hand removed as they just couldnt cope with looking at a dead persons hand attached to their body.

Not that its actually going to work and its just wrong in everyway i guess thats not a problem.

jungle you don't need a perfect body, these days you don't even need a perfect heart, you can fix issues once the main transplantation is done.

Ok - perfect enough for donation then.