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More Brains Needed
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Jan 08, 2009 05:10 PM
from the we're-not-unreasonable-I-mean-no-one's-gonna-eat-your-eyes dept.
from the we're-not-unreasonable-I-mean-no-one's-gonna-eat-your-eyes dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that more people need to donate their brains to medical research if cures for diseases like dementia are to be found and are urging healthy people as well as those with brain disorders to become donors. 'For autism, we only have maybe 15 or 20 brains that have been donated that we can do our research on. That is drastically awful,' said Dr Payam Rezaie of the Neuropathology Research Laboratory at the Open University. 'We would need at least 100 cases to get meaningful data. A lot of research is being hindered by this restriction.' Part of the problem, according to Professor Margaret Esiri at the University of Oxford, may be that people are reluctant to donate their brains because they see the organ as the basis of their identity. 'It used to be other parts of the body that we thought were important,' says Esin. 'But now people realize that their brain is the crucial thing that gives them their mind and their self.' Dr Kieran Breen, of the Parkinson's Disease Society, said over 90% of the brains in their bank at Imperial College London were from patients, with the remaining 10% of 'healthy' brains donated by friends or relatives of patients. 'Some people are under the impression that if they sign up for a donor card that will include donating their brain for research. But it won't,' says Breen. 'Donor cards are about donating organs for transplant, not for medical science.'"
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Over my dead body! (Score:5, Funny)
You can have my brain when you pry it from my cold, dead...
Oh wait.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Y'know, they never really specified whether the donated brains were from the living or the dead...
Anyone remember the Live Organ Donor skit from Monty Python?
Re:Over my dead body! (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not like it's going to be much to use to me. Just hoping they'll still be around, since I'm hoping it'll still be some way off.
Parent
Re:Over my dead body! (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:Over my dead body! (Score:5, Funny)
I suspect they'd be from inside heads.
Parent
Re:Over my dead body! (Score:5, Funny)
Naturally, the sources for those brains are not well publicized.
I suspect they'd be from inside heads.
Those are female brains then.
Parent
Re: Your brains (Score:3, Insightful)
Is anybody else here thinking of Jonathan Coulton's Re: Your Brains [youtube.com]?
Heya, Tom' its Bob from the office down the hall
Good to see you, buddy; howve you been?
Thing have been OK for me except that Im a zombie now
I really wish youd let us in
I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand
Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demand
But heres an FYI: youre all gonna die, screaming
(chorus)
(zombies) "All we want to do is eat your brains!"
Were not unreasonable; I mean, no ones gonna eat y
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
'Some people are under the impression that if they sign up for a donor card that will include donating their brain for research. But it won't,' says Breen.
Does anyone else feel a uncomfortable at just doing what Dr. Breen says?
Many fear cost... (Score:2)
...I know I do. I've heard horror stories over and over again about how donating your body to science means racking up large bills for your family.
Offer me a 'cheaper than being buried' option, and I'd consider it.
Re: (Score:2)
I've not heard those horror stories. I sort of expected it would be free.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The only cost I've ever heard of is if you want to donate it to some far away medical school, you have to pay to transport it there. Other than that, it should be free.
Of course, I don't want to donate my body to medical science because I am uncomfortable with the idea of all those medical students laughing^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hstaring in awe at my junk.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Are you sure it was "donating your body" and not "paying the mafia to take a dead body away?"
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I for one (Score:2)
won't someone THINK of the children!? (Score:4, Funny)
ie, I bet they have all the adult brains they need. how about some child brains?
"think of the children"
come on, kids. some of you are not using yours. can't you help the good cause out?
I gave at the office (Score:5, Funny)
It's not that I don't want to donate my brain, it's just that I've already promised other people that I would have my brain cryogenically frozen so that I can be resurrected at some point in the future, and I'd hate to let those people down.
Re:I gave at the office (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:I gave at the office (Score:5, Funny)
I've already promised other people that I would have my brain cryogenically frozen so that I can be resurrected at some point in the future
Ah, you must be a Cobol programmer.
Parent
wah. (Score:2)
Grow up (Score:5, Insightful)
Get over the fact that the universe doesn't care about you and help science!
Re:Grow up (Score:4, Funny)
Get over the fact that the universe doesn't care about you and help science!
When you put it that way... fuck the universe, I'm keeping it!
Parent
Re:Grow up (Score:4, Funny)
It's not like your brain wont be rotting in the ground anyway.
Some people's brains are getting a head start on rotting.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You have a strange definition of "I". You are not merely the atoms of which you are composed. In fact 98% [npr.org] of the atoms in your body are replaced yearly. It's not the atoms that matter, it's the pattern they're arranged in. Allowing scientists to study that pattern, and preserve even just a little bit of that information reincarnates you in a much more real way than reuse of the atoms in your corpse.
Donor Cards (Score:5, Funny)
'Some people are under the impression that if they sign up for a donor card that will include donating their brain for research. But it won't,' says Breen. 'Donor cards are about donating organs for transplant, not for medical science.'"
Well to be honest, I have always kinda hoped that having my donor card would mean they might transplant my brain...
More Brains Needed (Score:3, Funny)
They certainly are. Unfortunately, the trend seems to be the in the other direction. Especially among politicians.
Who Knew??? (Score:4, Funny)
Medical Researchers were zombies? ANYONE???
No way (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:No way (Score:5, Funny)
That's why I'm donating mine to 'Will it Blend?'.
Parent
Packing Instructions (Score:4, Funny)
And don't risk using UPS, since Sterling Courier Systems is the pathologist's preferred shipper.
Cooking Instructions? (Score:3, Funny)
They seem to be missing.
Flawed assumptions (Score:4, Funny)
That's not necessarily true. For example, I do a lot of thinking with another part of my anatomy. Ask anyone.
Healthy as well as with brain disorders? (Score:5, Funny)
Obvious solution (Score:4, Funny)
Replace the removed brain with an electronic brain. A simple one would suffice. All it would have to do is say "What?" and "Where's the tea?"
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Replace the removed brain with an electronic brain. A simple one would suffice
A 6502 would be ideal.
contact your local medical school (Score:5, Informative)
My mom had completed the paperwork to donate her body to the local medical school before she found out she had a rare degenerative (untreatable and invariably fatal) neuromuscular disorder. in her consultations with the neurology team at the local school, they determined that the leading research team was at another major university, so they just added that school to the paperwork to receive her brain and spinal cord. other than completing the paperwork, signing it and advising her next of kin, the process was seamless. the funeral home guys picked her up after she died and we gave them the paperwork. the university guys took it from there.
easy. and very satisfying.
To be fair.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Trying to cure Autism is like trying to cure innate stupiditity, I have serious doubts you'll be able to change the neurological wiring with any efficacy.
Certain learning techniques can be used to improve synaptic formation in those with a lower amount of total neurons, thus increasing their mental capacity somewhat, which works for some of those individuals born with below-average intelligence. But how do you fix someone with "too many"?
Of course, currently, most Psychologists/Psychiatrists work on the concept of treatment with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and/or drug treatment:
"Now Jimmy, if people are WRONG, just go along with it and pretend they aren't, and here, have some SSRIs, we dont' know if these will fuck you up for life, but it's easier on everyone else if we give you pills".
How about we just lobotomize [wikipedia.org] them all instead? Sound good?!
The sentance above is an example of hostile sarcasm.
Anyway, I'm more than happy to donate any bits of me that Medical Research can use!
Disclaimer: I'm not a Neurologist/Neurosurgeon/Neuropsychiatrist - happy for anyone else to correct me if I'm incorrect somewhere and they've got the knowledge.
Re:To be fair.... (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a PhD and autism, so that makes me autistic but not stupid. Simon Baron-Cohen, a autism researcher, has expressed his worry that "curing" autism could reduce the number people studying maths and other professions that require good systematizing ability, a strength possessed by people with autism. Here is his comment on the BBC website...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7736196.stm [bbc.co.uk]
I agree that the way to discourage curing autism, at least getting people to consider its wider implications that go beyond autism, is to connect the search into a cure with the search for genes that code for personality traits.
It is known that people with Autism and Asperger's are far more likely to vote in certain political directions and express a different degree of religiosity, so we are looking at personalty traits - of all people not just autistic people - when we look for a cure. It is scary stuff, the general public does not understand the ethics or its wider implications.
Parent
Wait until they're dead (Score:4, Funny)
' Part of the problem, according to Professor Margaret Esiri at the University of Oxford, may be that people are reluctant to donate their brains because they see the organ as the basis of their identity.
I would have thought that they only accepted brain donations from families of people who have already died. Certainly donating your brain while you are still alive would have an effect on your identity. I would hope this practice stops.
donating is complex (Score:3, Insightful)
For those of us willing to have our former bodies used for any good purpose, the existing system is frustrating because there is no coordination among multiple uses. Your body can be put to three different uses after death: (a) organ donation; (b) medical research; (c) medical training. Organ donation and medical research are in principle compatible - whatever organs aren't need for transplantation are available for research. However, neither of these uses is compatible with medical training: medical schools want the whole body for use in anatomy classes, not whatever is left after bits have been removed for transplantation or research. Furthermore, at least here in British Columbia, and as far as I know, everywhere else, there are three separate systems for the three uses. What I would prefer is to be able to sign up in one place to donate my body for whatever is the best use at the time. If an organ is critically needed, give it to someone, and use the remainder for research. If no organs are needed for transplantation, use it for research or anatomy class, wherever the need is greater.
Re:Take Mine (Score:5, Funny)
I'm told I have shit for brains, so I'm donating mine to local gardening enthusiasts.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I'm donating all my organs, but with a proviso that they use at least 70% and all to one recipient...
That way it's less of an organ donation, and more a hostile takeover...
Re:Take Mine (Score:4, Informative)
While I'm sure there are some surprising uses for corpses, I can assure you testing fire suits is not one of them.
They are tested using sophisticated bipedal structures of gelatin and/or elastopolymers that resemble the human body in rigidity and thermal decomposition properties. Those mannequins have hundreds or thousands of pressure and temperature sensors over them to determine how much protection fabrics can provide and where they are ineffective.
Parent
Re:Mmmm, Brains (Score:5, Funny)
The main problem I have with donating body parts for scientific research is that I don't want silly medical students using bits of me to play pranks on each other!
Are you kidding?! Biohazardous pranks are hilarious! How can you not donate to that cause?!
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Re:Doctors, Researchers, Get Your Brains, Quick! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Well, If they can keep it alive outside your body, all the better it allow them in the future to put you in a robotic body with lasers and guns and you only malfunction when you start seeing your family.
Re:Ethics, line 1... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:3, Informative)
err..wait.
Having been in the medical field for a while, from my complete experience, this is nonsense. I can't remember the last hospital I visited in the eastern side of the United States that had only one surgeon avialable on any given day. The truth is these guys do put in some serious hours but there is almost always more than one (...and for obvious reasons). So the story of the nurse or doctor mentioned wanting to relieve this surgeon is bogus.
If anyone truly believes this, I encourage you to never
FUD... in the most vile form. (Score:5, Insightful)
Even more despicable than trying to create fear, uncertainty and doubt of Open-Source, are people who try to do the same thing against those who would save lives... I hope you sleep well girlintraining.
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Re:Ethics, line 1... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I'm sure they could make an exception, like shooting at the gut. Sure, it's more painful and a slow way to die but if money is to be made then they should just suck it up for the greatness of their country.