Thread: Kind of a weird question

Ah well.
Sometime recent (I forget when, I'm pretty sure it was between 2000-2002 though) a doctor conducted a long surgery on 2 baboons. He wished to see if they would function with different bodies, so he basically killed both monkeys by cutting off their heads, and put one of them on the other baboons body (not quite sure what he did with the other head =/). The monkey with the new body actually woke up. He responded to movements, and could follow a persons finger with his eyes (he was paralyzed from the neck down). He even bit the doctors hand when it was too close. So I was thinking about this, and wondered if he actually remembered anything, or if he was the equivelent of a newborn. Did he remember the surgery, or anything of his life before? So I was wondering, if this was attempted on a human, would the same thing happen? Anatomically, humans and baboons are very similar. So could humans feasibly change bodies? I don't think any congress would appprove of any testing in this area, but what do you think?

For 4 days, yes. It was paralyzed from the neck down though.

I follow scientific discovery pretty closely, and don't remember any such accurence!? You must have read a hoax Lurker, or it was an experiment which was very "underground", as no one would attempt such a thing on an animal these days, esspecially not baboons.

Secondly, baboon, physiology is not really similar to that of a human. Gorillas or even chimps, resemble human physique more closely than baboons.

As for your question, it is a few hundred years too early to think of such things. Firstly we would have to sustain the brain's "life" for a rather long time of the detachment and reattachment procedure.

But more importantly think of the ethical consequences. Topics like that are irrelevant, in my oppinion, if you want to know what could happen reads Shelly's gothic novel "Frankenstein". I admit it is a lot out dated, but the theme stands.

axon

yeah, I can't see this being real... it would take incredibly long to reconnect a head, and both the brain and the body would die before it could be done... at least that's what i would think...

YHBT. YHL. HAND.

OK...so I was about 30 years off. Its been proven now !

My thoughts: Condemnation. I say let's stone this quack!

Seriously, this experiment seems a little on the side of perverse; and, with his level of success on non-human animals, it would be madness to try this on human beings next.

If anyone ever shouts, "Is there a doctor in the house?", they better hope he's not the doctor there.

Originally posted by UnregdRegd
If anyone ever shouts, "Is there a doctor in the house?", they better hope he's not the doctor there.

lol.

Anyway, he definetely ........ed quite a few people off in the process - I can't remember what the article was talking about though, because it explained the surgery, but why would an article in 2002 just explain a surgery that occured in the 70s?

Originally posted by axon
Topics like that are irrelevant, in my oppinion, if you want to know what could happen reads Shelly's gothic novel "Frankenstein". I admit it is a lot out dated, but the theme stands.

axon

That's like saying we should stop space exploration -- remember Alien?
Stop exploring the sea -- Leviathan.
Stop going to school -- The Faculty.
Stop (add topic here) -- (add relevant movie or book here)

Originally posted by WaltP
That's like saying we should stop space exploration -- remember Alien?
Stop exploring the sea -- Leviathan.
Stop going to school -- The Faculty.
Stop (add topic here) -- (add relevant movie or book here)

well maybeI have said it kinda wrong...things like the topic discussed here, maybe not irrelevant, but highly dengerous and immoral. I wouldn't compare "swapping" heads to space exploration...two totally different things. How do you equate them WaltP?