First Human Head Transplant Planned for 2017

[The Casualty]

I'm guessing they'll try to find a brain dead patient that has no next of kin. If not, they could attempt to give a very generous amount of money to family members, in exchange for their loved ones body, but I imagine it will be rather hard to find people that will take such a deal. Though, there's all kinds of people out there, so maybe not...

Is that even legal though? I didn't think that (at least in the US) that you could pay people for body parts, let alone a full body.

[Stretchie]

I'm sorry but if practiced head transplants on gorilla's have been very unsuccesfull. What makes him think it would work on humans.

This.

It wasn't unsuccessful because of rejection. It was unsuccessful because the monkey (it wasn't a gorilla) was a quadriplegic and could do little more than blink. It was a miserable existence and it was put of it's misery after a few days. That's what this man has to look forward to...at best.

Have they explained how they can reconnect the spinal cord? if so, I'd rather see them helping people with spinal injuries rather than this anyway.

[Eviscero]

I'm not seeing the reason for a religious shit storm.

[S7orm]

I don't understand this either. Could you eleborate? Why would religion vanish when this procedure is succesful? And by the brain dead person, you mean the body donor? What changes would he experience, he'll be dead.

A normal operation would transplant one or more organs from a dead body to a living one but this is pretty much the opposite. They are going to cool the head down to 10°C or little more until everything is in line to be reattached (and will still take some time). The person would be considered brain dead for the time.

But even if the operation will be succesful, I too don't see how it would elimitate religions. People would just grasp on their belief or morph it into something else like they already did many times in the past. I was merely reporting ^_^

[Deleted]

Eek, i will not be sleeping tonight. Hope this transplantation goes somewhat well for him considering everything. If not he can go full Robocop.

[SlayAllDay]

i really hope this will work, would be quite a huge deal 0.0

[Arthas242]

The real question is how many men expect this to work with their head on a womans body.....

*lets be honest, we know someone in this thread must of thought it already or even wants it*

[Bathory]

In 100 years

"Ew you still have that 2050 body?"

[Medusa Cascade]

The real question is how many men expect this to work with their head on a womans body.....

*lets be honest, we know someone in this thread must of thought it already or even wants it*

*raises hand*

[kail]

A huge breakthrough if this works. My only concern is for the patient, no one knows what kind of emotion or pain he might experience when woken up.

[Amunrasonther]

It's crazy to think that if this ends up successful, couldn't we dramatically increase our lifespans? Would dying from cancer be a thing of the past? And could this lead to brain transplants?!

My mind is blown.

[Deleted]

If it didn't work on the monkeys, why do they think it will work for humans?

[Deleted]

Huh, interesting and pretty scary.

Have heard plenty of stories about heart transplant patients gaining certain characteristics from their donated organ,

And how many of these stories did you read from serious medical journals? Changes in diet and mood is becuse of that a life-threatening illness has been cured, I did get a new opportunity, lets live the life to the fullest and start to smoke and eat unhealthy, or I must stop doing this self harming habits and eat healthily and stop smoking. The person can be very happy becuse of the second possibility of life or very depresed becuse the person truly understand how mortal he is.

[Kaleredar]

Absolutely. A lot of beliefs, theories, religions, spiritualities will be strongly shaken if it succeeds.

What religions hold that it's impossible to cut someone else's head off and glue it onto someone else's?

[Vash The Stampede]

He even has a volunteer, 31-year-old Russian software development manager Valery Spiridonov, who suffers from a debilitating muscle-wasting disease.

Have they not told him about myostatin inhibitors?

I just don't think this guy is going to live for very long after the head is switched. Plus, he's not exactly going to be able to use his new body.

[Deleted]

I'm assuming it's legal so long as the patient is an organ donor, though, I'm unsure if that means the entire body can just be taken, since family members will want something to bury. I know people can opt to donate their body to science, but I'm unsure how you directly go about that.

I understand you were probably referring to the donation of the "body" but it is maybe useful to consider the role of both parties in similar manner when looking at the morality/ethics of it all.

I think, if you read between the lines here I highly doubt that the volunteer(Spiridonov) thinks this offers him much chance of either surviving the operation and making any meaningful recovery by being the first to undergo the procedure. The guy is smart and educated, he works in a field where stuff often doesn't work first time.

You mention people leaving their remains to science (for research or teaching), this is probably a super "balls to the wall" version of leaving your body to such. It will be particularly distasteful in all areas where there is still an anti "right to die"/euthanasia camp on the grounds that some people believe the whole "where there is life their is hope" on the basis of heavenly intervention. (when you dig down this is often one of the roots of opposition). I can see there being issues with this in the same way that embryonic stem cell research is abhorred by some even though this hinges upon consent.

People with certain degenerative diseases often go through decades of attending specialists and seeing themselves and others get worse. It can in some ways be like watching a train wreck in slow motion as they will see people farther along a curve then themselves . I am constantly amazed by how people with such diagnoses can be positive and lead constructive lives with such eventualities on the horizon.If you know you are going to have what you consider to be a living hell towards the end, and then die, it is probably makes it feel a little less pointless if you could opt to probably die a bit earlier but have others learn from that death. If someone wants to opt for investigative treatment, with low chance of success, so that eventually progress is made then that is not desperation, that is being both noble and pragmatic. Many replies in this thread are suggestive of a "doomed man grasping at straws". Most people in these situations have lived with a concrete understanding of mortality for a long time and are somewhat pragmatic about it.

[Kourvith]

What religions hold that it's impossible to cut someone else's head off and glue it onto someone else's?

It's not that much binary as to be impossible or possible, but I was referring to the concept of soul.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul

If a head can be transplanted onto another body, that means the soul is not where it was thought to be. Therefore what is the soul ? The energy ? The chakras ? The "inner breath" ? etc.

[Ciddy]

I just don't think this guy is going to live for very long after the head is switched. Plus, he's not exactly going to be able to use his new body.

Well, he can't really use the body he currently has either, so he doesn't have a lot to lose. From what I understand, he's fully aware that he could die from the procedure or even wind up in the same situation with a body he can't use, and he's willing to take those risks. Hell, I'd at least think long and hard about it if I were in his position.

[Shadowspire]

Soooo yeah either this will be canceled, or as I'm predicting, he'll die the moment his head is removed from his body. I'd hope he survive, but I doubt he will.

- - - Updated - - -

It's not that much binary as to be impossible or possible, but I was referring to the concept of soul.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul

If a head can be transplanted onto another body, that means the soul is not where it was thought to be. Therefore what is the soul ? The energy ? The chakras ? The "inner breath" ? etc.

Your soul is your brain, duh. That's where your memory is, that is mostly where your feelings come from, that large meatball in your skull is literally what makes someone's soul, least in my mind.

[GennGreymane]

This makes my skin crawl.

Quick! Catch it!