Neuroscientist: First-Ever Human Head Transplant Is Now Possible 522
dryriver writes "Technical barriers to grafting one person's head onto another person's body can now be overcome, says Dr. Sergio Canavero, a member of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group. In a recent paper, Canavero outlines a procedure modeled on successful head transplants which have been carried out in animals since 1970. The one problem with these transplants was that scientists were unable to connect the animals' spinal cords to their donor bodies, leaving them paralyzed below the point of transplant. But, says Canavero, recent advances in re-connecting spinal cords that are surgically severed mean that it should be technically feasible to do it in humans. (This is not the same as restoring nervous system function to quadriplegics or other victims of traumatic spinal cord injury.)"
Re:Misleading (Score:5, Funny)
This is very misleading.
It is rather misleading when these scientists turn to their ladyfriends and say "Come on baby, give me a little head".
Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)
Head of Vecna [blindpanic.com], anyone? In other news, this plus cloning = "cure" for aging? Now if we can just figure out how to take all the skin and tissue on the skull and transplant that... oh wait. Nevermind. Face transplants.
Re:hmm (Score:5, Funny)
What could possibly go wrong?
Why didn't somebody tell me my ass was so big?
Immortality, here I come! (Score:5, Funny)
Provided we find cures for Alzheimer's and other brain degenerative diseases, I wouldn't object living for another 100-200 years, preferably wearing young woman's bodies.
Re:That's not a head transplant! (Score:5, Funny)
That's a body transplant!
You're ruining the joke. The doctors secretly hoped that colloquially, everyone would start calling it "a head job".
Re:Immortality, here I come! (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Head transplant or body transplant? (Score:5, Funny)
I think this question can be answered with a coin flip. Call it in the air, guys...heads or tails?
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:4, Funny)
Or like a terrible pump design. Intelligent design my ass, more like idiotic design.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Funny)
More over I thought the largest problem today is the fact that our bodies are outliving our minds as more people develop diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's.
Don't worry. If that happens, the brain - if you think it's important - can always be replaced with an electronic brain. A simple one would suffice, you'd just have to program it to say "What?", "I don't understand", and "Where's the tea?", and no one will be able to tell the difference in most people.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Funny)
Or like a terrible pump design. Intelligent design my ass, more like idiotic design.
Better than anything you've come up with... :P
OT: Sig (Score:2, Funny)
Re: Your sig: "...Dear God, I would like to file a bug report..."
It's already been filed [biblegateway.com].
Re:Immortality, here I come! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:3, Funny)
Terrible pump design? Show me a human designed pump that can operate for ~100 years at 60-100 beats a minute without stopping once and that under normal operation requires no maintenance.
Which is why an intelligent designer wouldn't have a pump in the first place. Especially one which was required to operate indefinitely without periodic maintenance. If I were designing something and I designed it in such a way that it could never be turned off for more than about 30 seconds and that no parts were replaceable or serviceable I would be called an idiot.
We're fundamentally a terrible design. If I told you that your laptop's battery dying would result in you losing all of your data forever and that you couldn't back it up anywhere you would tell me to take my laptop and design and shove it.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:4, Funny)
Do you know how many species of beattles there are
There are actually only four species of Beatles [wikipedia.org]: Beatlus Johnus, Beatlus Paulus, Beatlus Ringus, and Beatlus Georgus. Two of them are unfortunately extinct.