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Worlds first head transplant

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djpbaltimore

Jun 9, 2014
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Interesting article. Yes, it should be full-body transplant. When talking about transplants it is typically the 'non-self' part that the procedure is named for. I can't tell if the doctor is a showman or really serious. Graft versus host disease would be a huge hurdle as well as technical aspects outlined in the article. Plus, it would be difficult to find a donor that has an intact body, but died for reasons that would not be detrimental to a transplant. The fact that something worked in mice does not impress me all that much.

"He has said he plans to perform the procedure either in the US or China." China it is. No chance this is happening in the USA.
 
ebandit

ebandit

Aug 2, 2012
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shucks

red_flanders said:
Wouldn't that be a body transplant?
Click to expand...

shucks! and there i was thinking that I could be first in line....................for a cleverer

more on the ball brain....................................

aye! I would probably be dim enough to donate my body to the guy in the wheelchair

Mark L
 
Alpe d'Huez

Alpe d'Huez

Mar 11, 2009
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A few decades ago, after heart transplants were starting to happen (about 1970) I talked with my older cousin about it (she would eventually study dentistry). I was young and didn't understand how, but I got the idea. I asked about a brain transplant. And she said that with (then) today's science, it would be impossible. There are billions of nerve fibers, among many other issues. But she said she thought it could happen in our lifetime, after all, if you look back 70 from then, to 1900, the planet didn't have things like electricity, cars, let alone airplanes or men walking on the moon, and the concept of a heart transplant was unthinkable.
 
Jspear

Jspear

Feb 23, 2014
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Re:

djpbaltimore said:
Interesting article. Yes, it should be full-body transplant. When talking about transplants it is typically the 'non-self' part that the procedure is named for. I can't tell if the doctor is a showman or really serious. Graft versus host disease would be a huge hurdle as well as technical aspects outlined in the article. Plus, it would be difficult to find a donor that has an intact body, but died for reasons that would not be detrimental to a transplant. The fact that something worked in mice does not impress me all that much.

"He has said he plans to perform the procedure either in the US or China." China it is. No chance this is happening in the USA.
Click to expand...

This is what I was thinking. I'm not an expert in this area. Question; even when someone dies a "natural" death, don't the organs shut down pretty fast. Would someone's body even be usable in this situation?
 
R

ray j willings

Aug 4, 2011
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How would the head/brain person cope with all the information being sent from the new body and reciprocate in a efficient way. If the head/person is that of someone who has never had normal limbs then surely their is going to be a massive unknown factor. The nervous system etc would never have functioned with a normal body.
 
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djpbaltimore

Jun 9, 2014
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Re: Re:

Jspear said:
This is what I was thinking. I'm not an expert in this area. Question; even when someone dies a "natural" death, don't the organs shut down pretty fast. Would someone's body even be usable in this situation?
Click to expand...

True, it is not like Frankenstein where you can dig up any old corpse and shock it back to life.

Individual organs can be preserved quite a while after death if stored properly, but a body would need to be harvested within hours of circulatory death to be usable. Maybe up to a day in certain cases (Drowning in a cold lake etc.). Pragmatically, I think the donor would have to be someone who is irreversibly brain-dead and taken off of life support right before the procedure. But I still think the donor and recipient would have to be tissue matched like for bone marrow transplants, and finding perfect matches are not very common within the population which is why we have a national registry.
 
blackcat

blackcat

Mar 13, 2009
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Re:

djpbaltimore said:
Interesting article. Yes, it should be full-body transplant. When talking about transplants it is typically the 'non-self' part that the procedure is named for. I can't tell if the doctor is a showman or really serious. Graft versus host disease would be a huge hurdle as well as technical aspects outlined in the article. Plus, it would be difficult to find a donor that has an intact body, but died for reasons that would not be detrimental to a transplant. The fact that something worked in mice does not impress me all that much.

"He has said he plans to perform the procedure either in the US or China." China it is. No chance this is happening in the USA.
Click to expand...

spoke to gunther von hagen about this. we are gonna trade my physique in, 30something man, and he will keep me on that han solo dry ice, and i am out to buy a 20yo femme with a vavavoom frontend, then i will do something nasty with my current body.
 
mrhender

mrhender

Jul 11, 2013
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Merckx index said:
If this guy is such a medical genius, there are a lot of people with severed spinal cords who would love to make use of his technology.

Come on.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the mere idea of entertaining the possibility can increase life quality...

Perhaps he truly believes that being the first ( to try) serves a higher purpose than saving his life?

perhaps the doctor is only there to make dollars...?

I dunno...
 
LaFlorecita

LaFlorecita

May 15, 2011
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Re: Re:

mrhender said:
Merckx index said:
If this guy is such a medical genius, there are a lot of people with severed spinal cords who would love to make use of his technology.

Come on.
Click to expand...

Perhaps the mere idea of entertaining the possibility can increase life quality...

Perhaps he truly believes that being the first ( to try) serves a higher purpose than saving his life?

perhaps the doctor is only there to make dollars...?

I dunno...
Click to expand...
I think you misread MI's post.
 
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