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Russian man volunteers for world's first human head transplant

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Starfield

Starfield

Member
170.206.717



In February, Medical News Today reported that an Italian surgeon is to announce updated plans to conduct the world's first human head transplant within the next 2 years. Now, a 30-year-old Russian man is set to become the first person to undergo the procedure.
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The procedure - which is estimated to take 100 surgeons around 36 hours to complete - will involve spinal cord fusion (SCF). The head from a donor body will be removed using an "ultra-sharp blade" in order to limit the amount of damage the spinal cord sustains.
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more at the link: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/292306.php




What do you think guys? Will it work? Yes or No


Imo everything is possible. I've worked with patients who were able to survive COPD in end-stadium by completely getting new lungs. Medicine Science is the shit
 
H

How About No

Member
/AlreadyademonKaz

Hope this dude the best

I have a hard enough time getting my computer parts hooked up to the power supply, nerve reconnecting sounds haaard
 
L

linkandzelda

Member
Why is it called a head transplant. Your brain, which makes you who you are, is in your head so a head transplant is impossible. Isn't it really a body transplant?
 
A

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
Caplan said the procedure needs to be conducted many more times on animals before it is applied to humans, adding that if the technique is feasible then Dr. Canavero should be trying to help paralyzed patients before attempting whole body transplants.
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I agree with this guy. Why is he trying this procedure with a person before perfecting it on animals? If he can reconnect a severed spinal cord, then shouldn't that technology also help paralyzed people, and be tried on them first?
 
G

God Dayumm

Banned
linkandzelda said:
Why is it called a head transplant. Your brain, which makes you who you are, is in your head so a head transplant is impossible. Isn't it really a body transplant?
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Yeah, and wouldn't the donor be the one who gave the body?

EDIT: I misread, the donor is the body
 
B

btrboyev

Member
This won't be successful, the guy basically signed up for suicide. We aren't even close to being able to do this. Even if successful, I couldn't imagine the recovery time being more than years.
 
S

Servbot #42

Unconfirmed Member
btrboyev said:
This won't be successful, the guy basically signed up for suicide. We aren't even close to being able to do this. Even if successful, I couldn't imagine the recovery time being more than years.
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You forget the psychological aspect, nobody knows how the mind will react to a body switch, hopefully it's not a big deal.
 
Starfield

Starfield

Member
btw it isnt HIS head which is going to be transplanted but SOMEONE ELSE'S ON HIS BODY. Now everyone would think that well whoever gets to wear the meat suit has control over it (aka Brain = person/soul) but this doctor wants to further proof that this isnt true.
 
L

linkandzelda

Member
Hado said:
The doctor also wants to proof that your consciousness isnt stored within your brain.
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Where does it say this? I didn't see this in the article. This guy sounds crazy, there isn't any evidence that consciousness is stored any where other than the brain.
 
Y

yanipheonu

Member
Something to bear in mind is a lot of what your brain is doing is determined by the various chemicals your body produces and how it reacts to that. Your stomach alone for example, imagine suddenly having vastly different kinds of hunger and cravings. Not to mention sexual organs suddenly changing. Imagine suddenly changing all that. I seem to recall someone saying this could be a new level of madness to place onto a human brain, his brain may just not be able cope.
 
L

Linkyn

Member
Wouldn't this technically be a body transplant, though?

Edit: I see this has already been addressed.

Consider me a sceptic in this case, especially on the conscience issue. Still, it would be a huge deal if they do manage to pull it off.
 
L

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
Tenebrous said:
Is the operation being performed by Dr. Nick?

Yup, looks like suicide to me.
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It is not impossible that your consciousness (as in - the totality of how you feel and experience yourself and everything around you) is the sum of what's in your brain, and the totality of neural input that the brain constantly receives. What I mean is that it's possible that even if this procedure somehow works, the guy doesn't feel like himself in the new body, but more like that's he's controlling the alien robotic body or something like that - as the brain is no longer receiving the same input that its been tuned into since the birth.
 
A

Alcoremortis

Member
Since they haven't even been able to get it to work with monkeys or mice... I doubt this will work. Best case scenario, the guy survives but is just moving from a mostly paralyzed body to a completely paralyzed body.
 
R

radioactivez0r

Member
Hado said:
btw it isnt HIS head which is going to be transplanted but SOMEONE ELSE'S ON HIS BODY. Now everyone would think that well whoever gets to wear the meat suit has control over it (aka Brain = person/soul) but this doctor wants to further proof that this isnt true.
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Huh?? The guy with the muscular disease is going to have a new head put on his wasting body? I was going to ask who is donating the other body and now I'm even more confused.
 
S

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
SG-17 said:
A blade honed to the thickness of a single atom.
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That's why I mentioned obsidian, it's probably the sharpest straightest blade you can have, but it's brittle.
 
Y

yyzjohn

Banned
Hado said:
btw it isnt HIS head which is going to be transplanted but SOMEONE ELSE'S ON HIS BODY. Now everyone would think that well whoever gets to wear the meat suit has control over it (aka Brain = person/soul) but this doctor wants to further proof that this isnt true.
Click to expand...

Say what? They'll take his functioning head and brain, kill it and then place another head on his body? That sounds rather......wrong?
 
S

shortsFortallPeople

Banned
I dont see this working out and it makes me sad that that man is basically giving up on life. People die from simpler, much less complex operations all of the time so something of this magnitude just seems impossible.
 
Starfield

Starfield

Member
shortsFortallPeople said:
I dont see this working out and it makes me sad that that man is basically giving up on life. People die from simpler, much less complex operations all of the time so something of this magnitude just seems impossible.
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Did you read about his sickness? He is basically slowly dying inside his current body.
 
J

J-Rod

Member
I did not think we could repair a severed spinal cord. We might need to figure that part out first before we slice one in two.
 
T

The Wall

Banned
Patient/Volunteer said:
'"I can hardly control my body now," he said. "I need help every day, every minute. I am now 30 years old, although people rarely live to more than 20 with this disease."
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For people calling this suicide... the guy has already been ticking past his life expectancy. If this works properly, or even in some way, he will have extended his life, given himself a chance at non-wasting muscle movement, or provided some very informative feedback for medical science.
 
L

linkandzelda

Member
TheVampire said:
Is the soul in the body or brain?
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Is this a serious question? There is no evidence for the existence of a soul. If you mean conscience, then all evidence says that it is caused by processes within the brain, therefore it can be said to be "located" within the brain.

commedieu said:
Didn't a russian Surgeon do this with a dog?

edit:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Demikhov

Yea, doable. Hopefully the guy lives, but its pretty straight forward. As far skilled medicine goes.
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I'm curious to know why you think it is pretty straightforward? Even if the theory is sound and it has been preformed on smaller animals (both of which I haven't looked into/probably couldn't understand, but am highly skeptical of), the fact that it has never been preformed before automatically precludes it from being "pretty straightforward" as unforeseen complications happen all the time in practical procedures because of things that people simply didn't predict. A procedure can only ever be said to be "pretty straightforward" once it has been practised successfully and consistently.
 
M

Muppet of a Man

Member
TheVampire said:
Is the soul in the body or brain?
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For the most part, "you" are an emergent phenomenon derived from the indirect interactions between the biological machinery of your central nervous system and the surrounding environment. The sensori-perceptual and effector systems of the body aid your central nervous system's interactions with the surrounding environment as its I/O (input/output) liaisons (i.e., they serve as the interfaces for physically receiving information from the world and impacting the world via physical actions, respectively).
 
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