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.

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

Borrowed, you're not listening. Perfect or imperfect, you can't fix ANY of the issues once the transplant is done, not least because the transplant can't be done. But even if it could, you couldn't fix any of the other problems. None of it is remotely possible, its sci-fi.

I think because of the progress in use of stem cells it might be possible in the future to sever and then re-connect a central nervous system to that of a donor.

But. What looking down at someone else's body for the rest of your life would be like is another matter, and living forever would be exhausting. The human concept of life is one that incorporates death as an integral part of it, and for death no longer to be inevitable would, IMO, lead to lack of belief in the value of a life.

Besides, if you have all these donor bodies lying around that can be fixed by modern medicine why are they donor bodies rather than living people?

This just isn't possible at present, or in the foreseeable future, and it's sad that people fall for it. It's kind of on the level of those 'I shagged an alien' stories that used to be in the Sunday sport.

The Dr doing this sickens me, his fascination with it seems more perverse than scientific.

To me it just seems like a legal way for him to torture the poor animals that he does this to. He's performed this on thousands of mice and they haven't lived passed 1 day.

jungle because the person will be brain dead.. that's how we get such major organs, from people whose brain has died and can't come back therefore their body is allowed to die.

The hormone levels in the head and body will be different, how the body responds to a different brain will be different.

This is going to be a big mess

This might come to fruition one day but I am almost certain it won't be for at least another 300 years. The science is just not proven at the moment and it truly seems like something out of a sci-fi film.

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

He has a point, IMO. Which is it? For example, if someone has a kidney transplant, you give anti-rejection drugs so the rest of the body does not reject the kidneys, which it does not recognise and treats as a "foreign body". If you graft a head onto a body, what do the anti rejection drugs do? Get the head to recognise the body or the body to recognise the head?

We think of our brains as governing our bodies and determining our personalities, but how much do they? Think of the stories you hear of people thinking they pick up aspects of the personality of organ donors. OK, it might seem like a load of woo, but do you really think your personality is completely separate from your body?

I have depression. I've noticed a very complex interaction between how my body feels and my mental health. I cannot begin to imagine what would happen if my body was changed suddenly to someone else's. Even if we get over all the problems of attaching a head to a completely foreign body, I think it would drive the recipient to insanity.

Didn't someone from the scientific community who looked into this doctor's proposal say that we'd have a higher chance of attaching a head to a robot first, rather than an entire human body.

Hmm it seems the more I learn and hear about issues I wouldn't think of, the less likely this will work. I'm still interested enough to see what we can learn from this if anything, if we don't try now when will we try if you see what I mean. I don't think I'd ever opt for it, my body works so I wouldn't have a reason but I think I would definitely struggle with having another's persons body as my own. I still don't like feeling my daughters heart beating too much because it reminds that it isn't hers.

Quite honestly the guy he is doing it on wants it. I get the feeling he's rather die than not try and someone has to be the pioneer.
At first face transplants were pretty grim but they are getting better and better. Some of the recent ones look great.
I do worry about the side effects of the long term drugs though.

Thing is though, the guy that wants to try it has a brain stem disorder. So it's the brain stem that is unable to send the correct signals to the muscles that results in his disability.

The brain stem is right at the base of the brain, so would not be replaced as part of the transplant.

So even if it does work, the guy is left with exactly the same problem. His brain stem can't control the new body.

So a death sentence either way.

In addition to it also being a death sentence to at least 6 other people on the transplant list who could have had those organs.

It's hard to think of those that will lose out on the organs, but we need more people to donate to solve that problem. Using one body for an experiment is not the end of the world.