I mean it can't be that hard to hook up the spinal column and a couple of blood vessels.
I may be morally interesting but hey if we can drop bombs which wipe out entire cities then we're obviously not worried to much about morals.
2007-08-27 11:37:16 · 20 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Medicine
The brain is connected to the spinal cord by a tissue that is jelly-like and has lots of 'wiring' inside. An instrument slicing through the spinal cord will destroy lots of 'connectors' and leave the brain quite useless. An analogy would be like trying to splice two micro-processors.
2007-08-29 06:10:45 · answer #1 · answered by Optimist E 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A brain transplants has been successfully done between two apes by (keeping both ventilated, cooling them, and under endotracheal general anesthesia,) removing the brain of one after transecting it below the brainstem and sequentially anastomosing the carotid and vertebral arteries (using 4 arterial grafts). The "recipient" had a functioning brain but was obviously incapable of any descending motor control. It was basically an experimental vascular surgery case. It is technically impossible at present to transplant a brain and "reattach" it to the spinal cord of another individual.
2007-08-27 12:26:52 · answer #2 · answered by Aiden 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could keep the brain biologically alive, but there is as of yet no way of severing a spinal column and repairing it. You would put a brain into a body, but it would not be able to make a connection, it would only be taking up space. Interesting question, when science is able to perform this procedure, then they will also have cured paralysis.
2007-08-27 11:44:59 · answer #3 · answered by worldtraveler434 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
well, for one we don't know how to reconnect a severed spinal cord and cranial nerves. Second, the brain begins to die in about four minutes of oxygen deprivation, that doesn't leave you much time to go from one body to the other now does it? It is not exactly like you have a lot of space to work around either. Have you seen the inside of a human skull? I have. There is no way in hell a surgeon could pull that off.
2007-08-27 15:22:13 · answer #4 · answered by Troy 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It can't be too hard to hook up the spinal column and a couple of blood vessels????****?????
Setting aside the very real difficulties of doing just that for a moment, who would you be and what would your memories be when the new brain was fitted?
2007-08-28 07:07:15 · answer #5 · answered by tomsp10 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
At this point in time we DO NOT have the ability to heal/fix/rejoin the spinal cord, so brain transplants are impossible.
That is why so many para and quadriplegics are pinning their hopes on stem cell research.
Not to mention the whole moral dilemma as to who the person is after a brain transplant - the body's person, or the brain's person.
2007-08-27 11:42:37 · answer #6 · answered by Barb Outhere 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Never will be done, even if it could it would be a whole body transplant-the self resides in the brain and there for you (the brain) would receive a new body.
2007-08-27 12:49:04 · answer #7 · answered by zebbedee 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
connecting a brain is not at all simple.
first step is to connect damaged spinal cords int hose that are paralysed. that itself hasn't happened yet, so brain transplant is far away.
2007-08-28 05:09:51 · answer #8 · answered by Nirmala 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The medical profession is still in the dark ages when it comes to things like that. What purpose would it serve anyway?
Better to concentrate on finding cures for cancer, etc. than bother with things like this.
2007-08-27 20:31:12 · answer #9 · answered by pampurredpuss 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Forget the ethics..you can't possibly know what effects it would have on the individual. Would they retain the memories of the previous owner, for example? That could be confusing.
2007-08-27 11:46:54 · answer #10 · answered by mirrors and smoke 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋