Head transplants

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Linusthe2nd said:
Obviously the means are unnatural. But what the head needs to stay alive is the right mixture of blood and oxygen and other things the body normally provides naturally. As long as the head is supplied with the nutrients it demands, life should be sustained indefinitely. But yes it is a grossly perverse use of science. Keep in mind some of the other unnatural things science has done, dolly the cow for example and now three parent embryos.

Linus2nd.
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Dolly was a sheep 🙂
 
upbeatjonm said:
I saw in the news today, that a scientist in Italy believes we will be able to have the first “head transplant” within 3 years.:eek:
I seriously doubt this would ever be successful, but I think it raises some interesting questions from a Catholic point of view.
Aside from the obvious moral issues,
  1. If a person had such a transplant, assuming a new brain in their body, would they still be the same person?
  2. Would they still have the same “soul”?
  3. Would the donor’s soul still remain on earth, and if so where?
  4. Where does the soul exist, within the brain or the body?
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Some people don’t know when to quit when they are a head!:rotfl::rotfl:sorry could not resist.
 
Linusthe2nd said:
About ten years ago I heard somone was already experimenting with that problem, probably China or North Korea. The trick will be to keep the subject head alive long enough to do the transplant, and the receiving body would likewise have to be kept artifically alive. Read, That Hedious Strength, by C.S. Lewis, that is one of the themes of the book.

Linus2nd
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The time period to do the transplant or find a way to “fool” the nerves if the neck ( which is very hard because the second the body gets seoaratedbthe information starts to process) is around 30 to 45 seconds. Thus is why most experts consider that this virtually possible to do because no one on earth is humanly possible to do a full head transplant or to connect each nerve in the neck to something to fool the nerves in less than 45 seconds.
 
I don’t think it’s possible… The procedure is too complex - it’s not like screwing in a light bulb. Also, there’s only a window of 3 to 20 minutes (depending on a whole bunch of things) before the brain is fatally injured. Anything after 3 minutes and you’ll have to plan a-head for the procedure - pun intended.
 
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