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.)"
head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Insightful)
I suppose it depends on whether a larger proportion of personal distinctiveness resides above or below the neck, but I would guess it's closer to a head getting a body transplant, than to a body getting a head transplant.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Insightful)
Our hearts are the first critical thing to go, more often than anything. It's like a metaphor, really.
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)
Or like a terrible pump design. Intelligent design my ass, more like idiotic design.
Better than anything you've come up with... :P
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He might be an industrial pump designer. Those things can easily outlast a human heart.
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and how much energy does a industrial pump run on? and are they self repairing?
Hope for congress, SCOTUS? (Score:3)
...and other dead-above-the-neck types?
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet no one has designed an industrial pump that can perform at the level the heart does ... with the energy usage a heart has, for as long as it has.
So in short, no, no they haven't made something 'better' than a human heart in any way.
Show me a 120 year old unserviced pump please.
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There are no demands for an industrial pump with such a low rate or the ability to last 120 years. If there were, perhaps someone would have made one by now.
Also, the heart is not unserviced. In fact they are continually serviced. I'm not sure the exact turn over, but at least over 10 years every cell in your heart is replaced.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:4, Insightful)
There are no demands for an industrial pump with such a low rate or the ability to last 120 years. If there were, perhaps someone would have made one by now.
Also, the heart is not unserviced. In fact they are continually serviced. I'm not sure the exact turn over, but at least over 10 years every cell in your heart is replaced.
Well then show me a self-repairing pump that doesn't need external maintenance. One that can get the materials it needs from it's surroundings without doing harm to those surroundings, all while not having to shut down for the maintenance to take place.
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There are no demands for an industrial pump with such a low rate or the ability to last 120 years.
Sure there are. Off the top of my head, the most obvious is an artificial heart, which you seem to have conveniently neglected to consider. With the millions of people suffering from heart disease right now, an artificial heart with those specifications would be a miracle device, and there's been plenty of research into the field, yet no one has managed to do as good as a normal, organic one just yet.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:4, Interesting)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment [wikipedia.org]
It stopped working awhile back, but it lasted longer than 120. I actually remember the news stories when she hit her last birthday and then again when she died. From everything they reported she had said, the lady sounded like quite a character.
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That poor bastard must have died young indeed.
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show me a couch potato that will last 70 years with no maintenance
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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.
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Why those contraints?
This pump get 24x7 maintenance, and flow rate is all that matter not how often it pumps.
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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
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What is your definition of species that takes the throne?
No meaningful answer possible, I refuse to respond.
Besides, in terms of survival and reproduction on the planet, we're born more helpless than any other species.
A king without his clothes is just a peasant. Whether or not humans would be the dominate species without technology is irrelevant. We have technology, that is all that matters here (and more importantly: the ability to create new technology to overcome new obstacles).
Besides, in terms of survival and reproduction on the planet, we're born more helpless than any other species
I disagree. It seems to me that the human brain is the most powerful organ that any Earthling has ever been endowed with.
And in terms of probability to survive when dropped onto a random location on the planet we're no match for e.g. sharks
And just what have sharks done to do anything beyond carving out a tiny
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Wow, seriously? A pump that has an average lifespan of 80+ years, is able to adapt over time to varying long term loads and almost immediately to short term loads 2-3x the average, contains its own distributed timing mechanism and in many cases is capable of self healing. Yeah, that's a terrible piece of work, it is...
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Or like a terrible pump design. Intelligent design my ass, more like idiotic design.
Requirements:
Go!
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Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Insightful)
Good luck with that.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Interesting)
Or like a terrible pump design. Intelligent design my ass, more like idiotic design.
70+ years of continuous operation for a pump isn't TOO terrible.
That's only true if you restrict your analysis to a single, central pump. But no "intelligently designed" fluid-distribution system has just one pump. A distributed set of small, specialized pumps (and a redundant pipe system that can route around pump failures) is how any halfway-intelligent engineer would do the job.
There are species of animals that do have multiple pumps. (Google it. ;-)
Of course, this could be considered support for the theory that we (and all vertebrates) were merely prototype designs. We worked well enough that the Designer let us live, while He proceeded with the design of the main species that the world was designed for. There's some debate about which species that might have been. I've always sorta liked the explanations for why the giant squid was the pinnacle of creation on this planet, but there are good arguments that our world was primarily created as a habitat for mosquitoes or earthworms or various other small critters that vastly outnumber us.
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You're forgetting one thing: you're mobile. That means that either those extra pumps are redundant, in which case you're wasting precious space and weight lugging around needless baggage, or they're not, in which case a multi-pump design simply multiplies the chanc
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.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do artificial knee implants fail so often, then? Why are there no pro sports players with artificial knees? When your knees go, your running days are over; I know people who have them and none would agree with your assessment.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Interesting)
You can certainly run a marathon on an artificial knee. You can't play pro sports, but you're talking about the top .00001% of all players. If you go down, there's somebody behind you who hasn't had to do a length recovery, and who hasn't had a knee replacement literally rammed into his bone.
Knee replacements aren't actually all that great yet; they've got a lifespan shorter than your original knee. Cartilage takes a pounding. My own personal gripe with the knee is the ligaments, which are exposed and subject to tremendous leverage: my replacement is stronger than the original. (Even though it's actually made of more biological parts, rather than a purely artificial one.)
The real problem with the knee can't be fixed by trying to replace its parts, but to reconsider the way the whole joint is arranged. Most mammals use their ankle joints for purposes that we put our knees to, and walk on their toes instead of on their heels. We mis-adapted that design to bipedal walking, rather than redesigning from scratch, which is what a good engineer would have done. Had we evolved from ground-dwellers, it might have worked out better on the knees, but we came from tree-dwellers who went back to the ground, and some good ideas were lost in the transitions.
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:5, Interesting)
My particular application requirements for your Knees 2.0 are that they gradually increase in size from initial deployment in a 12 inch vertical system, and remain appropriate during stepwise modification toward a 6 foot vertical system with corresponding multiples of mass, without at any point losing functionality, or requiring further human interaction while re-optimizing for the changes in scale.
How's your option looking for this?
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Evolution called, with its answer to your question.
"It works. Nothing more is necessary. Case closed."
Re:head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:4, Insightful)
To be fair, our existing knees don't actually last our entire human lifespan. Much like antique wooden ships (i.e. HMS Victory, Star of India, etc.) pieces are gradually replaced over the years. A few planks here, a new sail there ... eventually the item in question is actually a completely new unit, divorced of any parts from the original.
The cells that comprise your knee have died and been replaced several times over the years. It's just so gradual that we don't notice, and treat these knees as the same knees we had a decade ago.
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.
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Actually... Remember that experiment where they sew the mice together. The question may be, are these GDF-11 proteins made in the head.
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2013/05/09/protein-heart-disease [wbur.org]
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ALL deaths are caused by heart failure. That is THE DEFINITION of when death occurs.
Unless your higher brain function gets whacked off by something else, while keeping the base neurological functions intact. According your definition, that would still make you alive, but even though this is a big step up from being Henrietta-Lacks-style-alive, it's still not quite there.
Also, "heart failure" to me indicates that there is something wrong with the organ itself. Would a fatal arterial haemmorrhage count as "heart failure"?
You can also get nuked. I guess that would be "an instantaneous body fa
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You mean weather the personal distinctiveness resides in the upper or lower head?
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What are you trying to say?
You think the sack of meat below your neck has anything to do with your consciousness?
The body can affect the mind (Score:4, Insightful)
You think the sack of meat below your neck has anything to do with your consciousness?
By consciousness I assume you mean the "personality/soul/essence of your 'being'/whatever you want to call it."
Yes, it does.
I know my "personality" changes a bit when I'm hungry, tired, in physical pain, aroused (re: http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3929305&cid=44166849 [slashdot.org] above), etc. That is, there are things that I would never do when thinking clearly but if I'm starving, fatigued, in pain, aroused, or otherwise operating far below my normal rational though, I might do (and later regret).
The "sack of meat below [my] neck" has a lot to do with this.
If you don't believe me, imagine how your personality would change at least temporarily if you were an 80 year old man who was in chronic pain whose libido left with his prostate removal a decade ago waking up with the body of a healthy 21 year old with a libido to match. You very well might forget your moral compass for a few seconds and make a remark to an attractive member of the hospital staff that you would regret as soon as your brain re-engaged and overrode your new hormones.
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Sure it can impact your mood and such, I take a drug every morning that most people make their own of that does that.
This does not mean the drug changes who I am.
I have no interest in discussing souls or chakras or other BS.
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Re:The body can affect the mind (Score:4, Interesting)
This does not mean the drug changes who I am.
I wonder then, why are there so many instances of insulin deprived individuals exhibiting uncharacteristically violent/aggressive behaviors, or slipping into comas.
Something as simple as an over/underactive pancreas can dramatically alter the behavior of a person. Last I checked, that organ wasn't located in the brain.
Re:The body can affect the mind (Score:5, Insightful)
I know my "personality" changes a bit when I'm hungry, tired, in physical pain, aroused
No, your "personality" doesn't change in response to these stimuli - the definition of personality IS an individual's response patterns to these. You are thinking of "mood".
Re: head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:2)
How much DOES it really matter? Obviously there are people who's bodies have withered away like Steven hawking, or veterans with their bits blown away in war and they are still conscientiously "whole" people.
So if I can put a head on a new body, can I just attach it to a mechanical one made up of life supporting devices?
Re: head transplant, or body transplant? (Score:4, Interesting)
In theory, yes - but it'd need a life-support complex that would fill a room.
There was a short sci-fi play on the subject, about a very rich and very old lady who survived crippling illness in just such a manner: She lived as a head-on-a-stick, connected to a huge machine in the room below that kept her alive. Fixed in place and able to interact only through a pair of robotic arms, she became depressed and attempted suicide - something the designers of the machine had forseen, and taken measures to prevent. Her death would mean no more machine, and no more research grants.
This was written pre-internet though. You could probably find plenty of WoW players now who would barely notice the change.
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What are you trying to say?
You think the sack of meat below your neck has anything to do with your consciousness?
Grabbing popcorn for thread on "where the soul is contained", in 3.. 2.. 1...
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You're going to be sad, it's not real. Same as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
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The title of the article is "HEAVEN: The head anastomosis venture Project outline for the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage (GEMINI)."
I think the reasoning behind the nomenclature is from the surgeon's perspective: whatever part is smaller is being transplanted. After all, no one contests the term "brain transplant," which has been a figure of (mostly rhetorical and science fiction) speech for some time.
Body transplant (Score:5, Informative)
They are really putting a "new" body on the old head. Therefore this is a body transplant.
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I wonder would the hormonal controllers in the aged brain cause accelerated decrepitude in the new, young body. But I mean that aside, this is virtual immortality if one were ruthless enough, or alternatively if we could clone human bodies without heads immortality for all who could afford it.
Brain and brain! What is brain? (Score:2)
I just don't know where to start with this one. Star Trek becomes reality.
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Eeew. Smug Earthlings in pajamas telling everybody what to do. I'll pass thank you.
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.
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Why not just put a persons twin into cryostasis for use later on? Let's make biological clones the new ruling class with prolonged life.
Even better for triplets and quadruplets! Man in the Iron mask meets Brave New World.
If we could find a way to "grow" an entire copy of a persons body such as via 3D printing with cells that would be one thing. But raising a human from fetus to an appropriate age strictly for the purpose of harvesting it's body strikes me as abhorrent.
And it seems it would make sense to tra
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:Immortality, here I come! (Score:5, Funny)
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Here is a vision of our glorious future:
http://www.musicforthejiltedgeneration.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/1-043-0437fd39-Aphex-Twin.jpeg [musicforth...ration.com]
Re:Immortality, here I come! (Score:5, Funny)
cure for paralysis? (Score:5, Interesting)
So with this technique could you cure paralysis? If you were to make the surgical cuts above the damaged spinal tissue and then attach the old head to a new body without the spinal damage?
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Some things should not be.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Morally and ethically, this simply should not happen and should not be pursued. There are boundaries we need to maintain for the safety of humanity.
In essence, this could provide eternal life to someone with enough cash. Typically those are not the most outstanding members of society that hold society's best interests as their own. How many nobles slaughtered their own as well as others for the fountain of youth? Go read a history book!
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Please explain how this would provide eternal life.
Your brain no longer functioning properly is not going to be solved by getting a new body, that will happen with age. Go read a science book!
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Your brain no longer functioning properly is not going to be solved by getting a new body, that will happen with age. Go read a science book!
When you replace the neurons one at a time with electronic substitutes (say, as an Alzheimer's treatment), at what point is Grandma no longer Grandma?
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Never, she is always Grandma.
I am hoping for that for me in the future, I doubt it will be available.
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When you replace the neurons one at a time with electronic substitutes (say, as an Alzheimer's treatment), at what point is Grandma no longer Grandma?
When she's Theseus?
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When Grandma gets a hot body, she is no longer Grandma.
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Your brain no longer functioning properly is not going to be solved by getting a new body, that will happen with age. Go read a science book!
Duh, obviously, that's why if the brain's a problem you get a new head! Come on, a five year old could figure this out!
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How would it create eternal life? Unless there's a way to cure degenerative brain diseases, this wouldn't really buy a person that much more time.
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Morally and ethically, this simply should not happen and should not be pursued. There are boundaries we need to maintain for the safety of humanity.
And you've appointed yourself guardian of humanity, have you? Longevity is inevitable, and it's pretty likely that the wealthy and powerful will enjoy the benefits first. There's zero reason why the rest of us shouldn't eventually likewise live much longer lives afterwards though.
Re:Some things should not be.. (Score:5, Insightful)
You are an example of why it shouldn't happen.
Oh okay. I haven't made a laughing stock of a malthusian all week and although it's only Tuesday, there seem to be fewer and fewer of you halfheads roaming the internet lately so I guess I'll take it where I find it.
Most humans are too stupid to realize the implications of longer life.
Good thing we have superior master race philosopher-princes such as yourself to show the way then, eh?
We are ALREADY over populated and unsustainable.
No, we aren't. Nowhere near. There is ample food and fresh water for the entire human race right now and plenty to spare. Where there are shortages the problems are invariably political.
We use energy from the planet faster than it is stored. We REQUIRE this energy to support the population of humans on the planet that is WAY past the point of natural balance.
Energy from the planet? What is that? You want energy it's raining on us from all sides and on high. If you covered a single digit percentage of the unused portions of the Sahara with old fashioned PV cells you could easily supply enough energy for all of Europe. And although I'm sure that a superior intellect such as yourself doesn't need this pointed out, that's not a recommended course of action but an illustration of the universe of insane abundance we live in. NO we do not require oil for transportation, NO we do not require oil for plastics, NO we do not require oil for fucking fertiliser, google the reasons yourself.
What exactly do you think will happen when people live twice as long?
We already know what's going to happen when people start living longer healthier lives, einstein, they have fewer children. Half of the countries in the developed world are already at below replacement birthrates. People stop having children or start having them later.
Do you think some other magical solution is going to pop up when lets us cram even more people into the same space.
We can not feed ourselves now, without oil, and the oil is being used ridiculously faster than its being created.
Oil, oil, oil. Try a little science instead. http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.ie/2007/11/314-peak-oil-and-fertilizer-no-problem.html [blogspot.ie] Boom, headshot.
Hopefully this shock therapy has rattled your teeth enough that you'll think twice before unloading another bladderload on the internet.
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Let's turn this around. Approximately what population do you think is sustainable for the Earth at a high-quality lifestyle given reasonable advances (and are there lifestyle concessions that you think should be made)? Eg. is it about 100 billion? A trillion? Surely there is some point at which we have to trade off significant quality of life at a given tech level and societal stability level to double the population.
All this said, I'm more in agreement with you than with the GP. What's the point of ke
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Because your head and brain doesn't age, right? It's only the body portion that ages and breaks down.
I also take it you have the same objection to heart transplants?
Re: Some things should not be.. (Score:2)
Well when they want YOUR BODY, and can support just your head "in a jar" so its not murder, just business, then the rich will just TAKE IT... Like they always do.
Body transplant (Score:5, Informative)
I'd really argue that because who you are is really all in the head, this is a body transplant rather than a head transplant.
TFA says that the idea is still rather speculative, but if it were to work I have to wonder how long it would take the brain in the head that was connected to a new body to figure out how to make the new body work. I doubt all the individual axons would connect perfectly in 1:1 fashion in the same way as it were on the old body. In fact I'd be surprised if any axons connected to the same corresponding one in the new body.
As an aside as a teenager I suffered a very serious injury to my wrist when my right hand went through a pane on a glass door. The glass basically sliced my wrist open to the bone. Aside from losing a lot of blood from the severed arteries, the radial nerve was completely severed and was microsurgically reconnected that night. The radial nerve basically gives your hand sensation from the thumb to the middle finger, and when the nerves first grew back, the sensations would come out in the wrong place - if I touched the inside of my middle finger the sensation would come out elsewhere on the hand. However after a few months things got "remapped" and the sensations all now come out in the correct places. I'd imagine this would be a more serious problem if a nerve that conducts some sensation is now connected to one that's supposed to activate a muscle.
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Sorry, I meant median nerve (the radial artery was severed too)
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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three words should put an end to this chicanery: Immortal Dick Cheney.
I think "should be possible" already deflates the hype.
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, Interesting)
I'm the same person I was 400 years ago. Sure, they replaced my head 3 times, and my body 4 times, but I'm the same person.
(for other examples of this, see Ship of Theseus Paradox [wikipedia.org])
not for quadriplegics or other victims ?! (Score:2)
Why? Is it possibly because someone (like wealthy social network founders, etc...) would pay lots of money for keeping their heads going vs quadriplegics or other victims don't have the money required to "enrich" science?
MARS ATTACKS! (Score:2)
No further comment necessary
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Some would argue the chihuahua head on her body is an improvement.
Complicated Consequences (Score:2)
For example, we have face transplants, now the possibil;ity of head (or body) transplants. So, if you take a blonde, peal down her face and attach a head with a brain, will this ruin all the "Dumb Blonde" jokes?
Interesting (Score:2)
But I'd prefer learning how to fix the issues that would lead to the necessity of a complete head transplant.
Say Jack (Score:3)
Said to Nixon's head, best line in Futurama (Score:2)
Robot Satan: "Well, it's back to hell for me! C'mon Nixon!"
I don't know about this (Score:2)
Head transplant? (Score:2)
don't they mean body transplant?
Variation on the movie scene (Score:3)
Though the note would have to be taped to the ice bucket lid, I suppose.
Great for those looking to get ahead (Score:3)
The first person to get an additional head grafted onto their shoulders should be declared president of the galaxy!
I can't believe they actually tested this. (Score:3)
I can't believe that some scientists actually had the bizar idea to test this on animals. What sick brain actually thinks "Gee, I wonder if I could transplant the head of this goat to the body of that other goat ..." ... Perhaps scientists doing stuff like that should be locked away or at least have their permissions revoked or something.
Creeeepy.
My 2 cents.
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".
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:hmm (Score:5, Funny)
What could possibly go wrong?
Why didn't somebody tell me my ass was so big?
RE: What could possibly go wrong? (Score:3)
All hail the KING of the NORTH!!! All hail the KING of the NORTH!!!
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Ooh, you bad person, forgetting to put "spoiler alert" in there. :-)
Funny thing (ha ha) -- in our world, there are people whose last name is "Capodilupo" . I suppose it's a fine point that it's not "Capodilupoterribile"
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".
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Karl Pilkington is up for it. [youtube.com]
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Does it still count as pedophilia?