Off with their head! (And onto a new You! Slightly used.)

[tacticslion]

So, clickbait titles aside (sorry, guys, I just couldn't get that remix (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EhF6mMWPCw) out of my head mind, and it seemed far too appropriate to waste, plus the potential for all the memes and references...), well... hm.

I guess I'll just link the clickbait article?

So, uh, this was an article (http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/human-head-transplants-could-become-reality-2017) someone linked to me.

It sounds... dubious at best. I mean really dubious.

But, uh, maybe Mary Shelly was just "ahead" of her time!
(D'hooo~oohohohohohohoho~!)

((I'm sorry, it's like a disease of the head mind!))

[Nique]

Any kind of surgical extremeity transplant may eventually be technically possible, but it will almost certainly be considered useless in light of better options - If you can effectively connect a head to a body, it follows that you understand the nature of that connection in such a way so as to artificially produce it (e.g. keeping the head alive through artificial prosthetics, etc).

I think, at least. I'm trying to think about this logically but honestly I am just talking out of my as s.

[tacticslion]

Any kind of surgical extremeity transplant may eventually be technically possible, but it will almost certainly be considered useless in light of better options - If you can effectively connect a head to a body, it follows that you understand the nature of that connection in such a way so as to artificially produce it (e.g. keeping the head alive through artificial prosthetics, etc).

I think, at least. I'm trying to think about this logically but honestly I am just talking out of my as s.

That's one of the things that's so odd about the whole thing. I mean, ultimately, why? What's the big deal?

Either we're going to be able to fix it, or we're not, so what's the benefit to being able to surgically transplant heads?

I suppose (this is coming to mind as I write this), that it may be "preferable" in a few cases - say, where one body is dying for reasons (perhaps an uneven distribution of telomeres, or something, in the lower body, while the head/brain is fine; hence an aged lower body, but an effectively "younger" upper body) and and one head is "dead" for some reason (major blunt-force trauma?), but I'd have to imagine that such situations are so passingly rare as to be exceedingly unlikely.

Hm... it's possible that those in the trans community might get some utility out of this, now that I'm thinking about it, though again, there are a huge host of ethical issues going along with that which would have to be considered first.

I could see the preference to flesh over, say, artificial prosthetics... but, again, the ethics are so... out there.

Hm.

(Also, the viability of such a surgery... seems... unlikely.)

[MasterOfMagic]

I can't imagine it will be used, you'll save a whole lot more people by transplanting the individual organs than the whole body. It is cool that we have the knowledge to do such a thing, though.

I think attaching a head to an artificial support system is a neat thought, but I can't imagine it being useful except in some extremely rare cases...

[Terex4]

Hm... it's possible that those in the trans community might get some utility out of this, now that I'm thinking about it, though again, there are a huge host of ethical issues going along with that which would have to be considered first.

The trans community (at least the local one here) has pretty much completely disavowed this as helpful to us. It's a nice thought but there are far too many issues for this to be anything resembling practical treatment for gender dysphoria.

[tacticslion]

The trans community (at least the local one here) has pretty much completely disavowed this as helpful to us. It's a nice thought but there are far too many issues for this to be anything resembling practical treatment for gender dysphoria.

I know I was reaching - mostly, however, I was trying to come up with anything at all that this could be genuinely useful for.

While the community as a whole might have disregarded this, I could see it as an alternative chosen by some. (Though, again, there is the huge host of ethical issues that I noted - basically, there's a loooooooooot of problems with this ever being a technique in any community, no matter what.)

[Kim]

The science that seems more interesting in terms of potential help to trans people has more to do with flipping certain genetic switches that regulate how much of certain things get produced and what kind of cells develop in some areas, even into adulthood. There's also been progress in transplanting certain types of tissue for vaginoplasty.

Also yeah this thread is not what I expected it to be about when I read the title. Whoops.

[Terex4]

I know I was reaching - mostly, however, I was trying to come up with anything at all that this could be genuinely useful for.

I didn't mean it as a personal criticism so I apologize if it came off that way.

That is really is the struggle with this kind of treatment though, it sounds useful as hell until you start trying to find actual applications for it. Ethical standards aside it's just one of those things where the future knowledge that comes from what we learn by studying this is going to be far more valuable than this procedure will ever be.

[tacticslion]

Also yeah this thread is not what I expected it to be about when I read the title. Whoops.

Sorry! Silly title is silly. :)

EDIT:

I didn't mean it as a personal criticism so I apologize if it came off that way.

That is really is the struggle with this kind of treatment though, it sounds useful as hell until you start trying to find actual applications for it. Ethical standards aside it's just one of those things where the future knowledge that comes from what we learn by studying this is going to be far more valuable than this procedure will ever be.

I tend to agree. I'm just wondering what, exactly, the point of advertising it as this specific procedure is?

As in, the science is interesting, and the ideas are fascinating, but at what point does someone go, "I can attach nerve endings - I'll advertise it as changing peoples' heads!" - I mean, that's weird, right? It's not just me, right?

It seems much more like it would be a side-statement to the attaching-nerve-endings-thing (as in, "Oh, by the way..."), rather than the primary presentation.

What I'm most fascinated by is the fact that this at all seems to be accepted as legitimate. And I do me "At all." Not because it's impossible, but because, it sounds so hokey. I mean, it's not exactly the plot to Face/Off, buuuuuuuu~t...

I mean, it just looks like the kind of thing that would cause problems for everyone to advertise as. And, honestly, here, just how legitimate are these claims? How potentially real are these ideas?

[rpgdemon]

Yeah, wait, if you can attach nerve endings, why not use it for arm transplants, or leg transplants, before head transplants?

[MasterOfMagic]

Yeah, wait, if you can attach nerve endings, why not use it for arm transplants, or leg transplants, before head transplants?
http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/25/health/boston-double-arm-transplant/

[rpgdemon]

That's freaking awesome!

[tacticslion]

THAT'S SO COOL!