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This sounds quite disturbing, I mean people write about it but in real life? No thanks.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/25/first-full-bo...
Sydney M
Body transplant in two years
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This man is just stirring things up
the possibilities of any such thing would be years away as spinal cord injuries show, attaching a head to a functioning body is incredibly risky and that doesn't include the psychological element.
Angharad
I hope so
I was shocked to discover that its been achieved on monkeys in the 70's and he said just because its not PC in the West doesn't mean its unwanted anywhere. I hope he sees reason but its still a scary idea. Worth writing about anyone?
I think you missed the significance of their mentioning PEG.
It has been shown in the last several years that with other treatments, that surgically induced injuries to the spinal cord can be largely healed by, among other things, flooding the site of the injury with polyethylene glycol. I seem to remember rats were given a 1 cm gap to their cords, and within several months were moving ontheir own again, proportionally huge injury. By juxtaposing very closely cut cords and following the same procedures, it could work well enough to be an an attractive option to the mentally healthy but otherwise dying.
It cannot be of benefit to people who have more random injuries to their nerves, because the treatment protocols generally cannot be followed in time, (with respect to treating injuries as opposed to planned transplants).
And as opposed to transplants, grown bodies would seem to be a better choice--not that we are there yet.
Still its a slippery slope
Still its a slippery slope should we start it. Imagine someone gets old and has his/her new body grown and then is transplanted into it. Obviously this will a very expensive form of plastic surgery. Does this mean the rich will literally become immortal while the wage slaves work ever harder in the hope of achieving immortality? This can only lead to chaos
No, because we're human.
No, because we're human. Boredom will take care of anyone planning to become immortal. You see, the people _you_ are worried about are those who don't have any true hobbies, or work with other people. They're purely inwardly selfish. Those people will start seeking more and more 'pleasure' (if you can call extreme sports pleasure), and eventually kill themselves off. Those rich people who _do_ stay personally entertained are almost certainly those who are busy taking care of business, not running people over.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
"I will fear no evil"
For those who haven't come across this 1970 Robert A Heinlein book the rich old man has his brain transplanted into a young female body - after all if you can fuse spinal nerves why not eyes, ears, nose and tongue.
Rhona McCloud
You know someone is gonna do it sooner or later.
He my be optimistic on the time frame, but it will happen eventually regardless of what most people think. I've come to the conclusion, "If Man(the species) can do it he will". He is right about at least one thing, regardless of the moral implications "Somebody someplace in the world will do it". How soon and how successful are something else.
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