Morbid question : Head Transplant

[R_1]

Let's say it is proven that a head transplant is medically possible, and without adverse side effect.

Here's the situation you are in now - You are in a hospital with multiple organ failure, and everything except your neck and head is failing.

Now, would you try to sign up for a head transplant to another body?

[Guest]

I'm personally against all transplantation (if and when my organs fail, I will die, end of story; and then all my organs will get burned with my whole body, TYVM. And I have a donor card with the "no way" box checked - I think that no matter whether you're for or against it, you should definitely fill out the donor card either way and keep it in your wallet with your ID and everything.). So, obvious no.

If someone else would want to go through such a ghoulish procedure... meh, I can't stop them. But I probably couldn't stop myself from being visibly disgusted with their choice. (Good thing that it's not likely to happen any time soon... attaching all the nerves going through the neck/spine area before either the brain or the rest of the body becomes unrevivable is very much scifi. The poor monkeys they did head transplants with experimentally in the past were quadripledic for the short remainder of their unlucky lives.)

[Kappamaki]

Wouldn't this be more of a body transplant? I kind of consider the head to be more "me" than the rest, seeing as it contains the organ where my thoughts, memories, and sense of self are all kept.

[Guest]

They transplanted the head of a dog onto another dogs body *years* ago (like, the 70s haha) and it lived for two weeks (the original dog still had its head, they joined the other dogs head to it's spine or something) so it's definitely possible (with the side effect of a slow, painful, degrading death of course)

But even if it was possible without any adverse side effect at all, would I get my head transplanted onto someone else's body? fuck no haha. Life really isn't quite enthralling enough for me to want to go to that amount of effort, humiliation and degradation just to stay alive. I'd take death thanks :p

Also as a random side-note, they have found memories are stored in all the cells of the body. People who have received an organ of someone else will often have memories and emotions left over from the person the organ came from.. weird but also pretty cool :D

[Guest]

...

Also as a random side-note, they have found memories are stored in all the cells of the body. People who have received an organ of someone else will often have memories and emotions left over from the person the organ came from.. weird but also pretty cool :D

Citation needed.

[Guest]

...

Also as a random side-note, they have found memories are stored in all the cells of the body. People who have received an organ of someone else will often have memories and emotions left over from the person the organ came from.. weird but also pretty cool :D

Citation needed.

Oh sorry I thought pretty much everyone had heard of it so didn't think to bother with a citation.. whether one believes it or not, I assumed it was a commonly known theory, my apologies.

I watched a documentary on cellular memory in major organs years ago, about people who had received major organs and started to have memories and emotions that didn't belong to them/they had never previously experienced. I was rather young when I saw it so don't remember the exact name of the documentary, but there is lots of info out there about the phenomenon of cellular memory.

Anyway, I did a Google search, and there are lots of articles online about the theory of cellular memory in major organs :)

http://www.medicaldaily.com/can-organ-transplant-change-recipients-personality-cell-memory-theory-affirms-yes-247498

http://donatelife-organdonation.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/organ-transplants-cellular-memory.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10882878

http://guardianlv.com/2013/06/organ-transplants-cellular-memory-proves-major-organs-have-self-contained-brains/

Those are a few.

[deltaX]

I don't think I would want to go through with a head transplant just to stay alive. I'm not against organ transplants in general, but getting a whole new body just seems way too extreme. Maybe if I had lived and grown up in a world where it was possible, head transplants wouldn't seem so freaky to me, but for now my answer would be no.

[Robin L]

Despite being supportive of organ donation, I would not be supportive of brain transplants. This opens a whole lot of problems in ethics. Should the recipient still be considered to be themself, or the brain being transplanted?

[Guest]

I believe who we are lies within our brains rather than bits of our other organs. Sure other parts will influence our thoughts, but the thoughts and feelings are only within our nervous system.

[LaMaestra]

An emphatic no. Like Mysticus, I am against transplants.

[elainetta]

Interesting and relevant sci-fi book recommendation time: Andra by Louise Lawrence. I read it in sixth grade when I was bored (yes, it's mostly for that age group). The link goes to the Goodreads page where I found the author's name - a detail I didn't particularly care about when I was twelve - which includes a short synopsis, but I'll provide an even shorter version. A dying girl gets part of her brain transplanted, and she survives... to ultimately be a different person than she was before.

Aside: I'm just remembering that my attempt at a sci-fi novel might have been more than slightly inspired by that book. Instead of a brain graft, though, I was using time travel. And it's turned into something very unlike Andra... but I still have to write it.

Anyway, my opinion. I'm not against transplants in general, although I've noticed them failing more often than not for a relative of mine - even when taken from close relatives. There's a large risk of rejection, because the body's immune system realizes "wait, that's not mine!!!" and attacks the necessary replacement. :( If the transplant process can be redesigned (maybe by growing or 3D-printing new, 100% compatible organs for the people requiring them), I will still have fewer reserves on the transplantation of minor yet vital organs such as kidneys, liver, etc.

But the head and brain?

No thanks. Something in my gut says that's not supposed to happen.

Let alone where would you get the new body....

[R_1]

Let alone where would you get the new body....

The body would most likely be a brain-dead person who signed up for this.

[DiEvAl]

Hell, yeah! I would definitely get a whole-body-except-for-the-head transplant if that was the only way to avoid dying. I'm not sure there'd be many donors though.

[SorryNotSorry]

For me, this thread conjures up images from the blaxploitation movie The Thing With Two Heads...

Joking aside, however, it would be necessary to have oxygenated blood circulating into the head to be transplanted... that can be done with an artificial heart... because any interruption of the brain's oxygen supply would pretty much mean game over.

Next would come the really difficult part: microsurgery to match up the nerve endings. We know from successful hand transplants that nerves take a very long time to synchronize... people who've undergone hand transplants report that it takes months and months for the sensation to slowly work its way toward their fingertips, even when the hand has full range of motion and shows no signs of rejection.

Come to think of it, this could be a solution to the death penalty... cut convicts's heads off and transplant the heads of dying innocent people onto the bodies. This could also be a good solution for the problem of women who've always wanted to be men.

[Mudlark]

I'm not against transplants of any kind; my own personal thoughts are that when I'm dead, I'm dead; I'm not going to be using my body anymore so if someone else wants to use it, go ahead. That's just me personally, though, I understand some people feel differently. The idea of having my head transplanted onto a whole new body though is pretty weird...but I guess if the other option was dying, I'd probably do it.

[deltaX]

I actually just heard a story on my local radio station about someone who is actually going to do this. A 30-year old man is set to be the first human ever to have a head transplant, and his head is going to be transplanted onto the body of a brain-dead volunteer. I didn't catch the wholestory on the radio, but a quick google search found this article, which seems to be what they were talking about.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3029376/Russian-volunteer-head-transplant-operation-Valery-Spiridonov-says-no-choice-undergo-7-5million-procedure-controversial-Italian-surgeon-Dr-Sergio-Canavero.html

So yeah, if this is successful, head transplants may be a thing sooner than we thought. I still don't want it happening to me though

[CosineTheCat]

I have to agree with Robin L said.

I'm not again transplants at all, I have it so that when I die my organs will be donated because I wont need them anymore. If I had it my way my body would be donated for medical science too. (saying that I could possibly be the body used in one !??!!! I never thought about that before) But in general I think that it would cause a bunch of ethic problems I could totally see rich people cultivating humans so that they could live forever by just transferring bodies

[Squirrel Combat]

Wait, so your body is failing, so you get a new body, only to have that fail? Hahahaha! So you could just be in a perpetual head transplant phase at the hospital! :P

[oOXeonOo]

I would say I'm one of the few people who would do this, a bit of a cryptic thought sure but I would say if it were entirely possible and there was a willing donor I would. have to say yes, As far as what Squirrel Combat said yes XD pretty much I would put myself in a never-ending hell hole of one life to the next, my reasoning? Personally I would like to actually do some things in my life and if I had pretty much as much time as I needed I would be able to see it all, do it all. Not to mention I would like to see world peace one day may sound a bit corny but eh, its the truth I would want to become some sort of old wise leader that can guide people and help them when in need. Not to be a hero or for fame or anything but just to revive my faith in humanity, keep it alive.

[Guest]

I would have to have some kind of knowledge on what kind of effects that would have first, I think.

...

Also as a random side-note, they have found memories are stored in all the cells of the body. People who have received an organ of someone else will often have memories and emotions left over from the person the organ came from.. weird but also pretty cool :D

Citation needed.

Oh sorry I thought pretty much everyone had heard of it so didn't think to bother with a citation.. whether one believes it or not, I assumed it was a commonly known theory, my apologies.

I watched a documentary on cellular memory in major organs years ago, about people who had received major organs and started to have memories and emotions that didn't belong to them/they had never previously experienced. I was rather young when I saw it so don't remember the exact name of the documentary, but there is lots of info out there about the phenomenon of cellular memory.

Anyway, I did a Google search, and there are lots of articles online about the theory of cellular memory in major organs :)

http://www.medicaldaily.com/can-organ-transplant-change-recipients-personality-cell-memory-theory-affirms-yes-247498

http://donatelife-organdonation.blogspot.co.nz/2013/06/organ-transplants-cellular-memory.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10882878

http://guardianlv.com/2013/06/organ-transplants-cellular-memory-proves-major-organs-have-self-contained-brains/

Those are a few.

Well color me absolutely fascinated :D

[scarletlatitude]

My body is totally effed up and I would most likely be a candidate for this procedure if it ever existed. (You know when you go to the doctor and you fill out that paper with all the check boxes of medical conditions? I check them all. Every. Single. Box.)

And hells yes I would do it. I assume that the body donor has to have a background check of sorts. ;)

Here's a crazy thought -- if an asexual head was put onto a sexual person's body, what would happen?

[Guest]

Here's a crazy thought -- if an asexual head was put onto a sexual person's body, what would happen?

*dramatic hand raising, doomy outdoor voice of doom* Armageddon!!

[Peachyy]

Sounds expensive.

I'm all for organ donation/people taking what I've got, because I just don't care about my body that much--send me to a farm where people study decomp and let me rot in a field, for all I care. Like someone else said, it's more a body transplant if you do it to yourself. I'd let someone attach their head to my body if "I" die. I wouldn't do it, though. It sounds expensive, such as aftercare and whatever bags of medication you would need in order to keep the flesh on your head/the body from trying to repel the foreign one, etc. I don't even need that. You have organ failure? Maybe, see if you can replace that organ. But I'm already 77% sure that I'd just throw in the towel. An entire body? Sounds like too much of a life extension for me. But if someone else wants to take on what I have an attach their head to it, go on and try.