Head transplant - wait - what?

[gamerprinter]

I'm guessing by the medical situation of the proposed patient, that the spinal column, skull, brain, eyes, etc will be kept intact, whereas the head transplant would be just the muscle tissue on the outside of the skull. Its not suggesting that a decapitation will occur and that an entire new head will be attached. At least that's how I read it.

 

[Enkhidu]

I never knew that Vecna was a Russian name.

 

[Umbran]

I'm guessing by the medical situation of the proposed patient, that the spinal column, skull, brain, eyes, etc will be kept intact, whereas the head transplant would be just the muscle tissue on the outside of the skull. Its not suggesting that a decapitation will occur and that an entire new head will be attached. At least that's how I read it.

I've seen this one go around before - no, he means actually what you think he means. Decapitation and placement on another body. The doctor has a scheme by which he thinks he can get the severed ends of spinal column to fuse...

So, a couple people will die for the experiment.

 

[delericho]

So, a couple people will die for the experiment.

Presumably, the donor of the body will have died already, same as with most other organ donations. And if the person whose head is to be transplanted was dying anyway, they might consider it worth the risk.

 

[Scott DeWar]

The sucker Mark patient is allegedly dying of a deteriorating muscular disease. some rare thing or another.

also keep in mind it is al-jazzeera doing the reporting, not that they would ever be misleading.:

http://news.yahoo.com/al-jazeera-hi...0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw--

 

[El Mahdi]

Not to be pedantic, but wouldn't this more accurately be described as a Body Transplant and not a Head Transplant?

 

[Umbran]

Not to be pedantic, but wouldn't this more accurately be described as a Body Transplant and not a Head Transplant?

Well, aren't transplants referred to as a transplant of the *smaller* bit?

Though, honestly, when you are gong to whack off someone's head and put it on a new body, the semantics of naming the procedure probably shouldn't be the largest concern

 

[MarkB]

Well, aren't transplants referred to as a transplant of the *smaller* bit?

I'd always considered it to be referring to the piece of the patient that's being replaced.

In the case of this operation, they're not giving the patient a new head - they're giving them a new body.

 

[Umbran]

As I noted - if you're talking about moving a head to a new body, the semantics probably aren't the biggest concern.

 

[sabrinathecat]

Well, they are getting to the point where they can (almost) 3D print replacement organs...
Why not just do an entire body?