*eye twitches* Are you..... sure that was legit?

Did you um... read about the dream I had last night?  Because this is very very eerie, if you did not read my dream.    You should go take a peep.

I don't see a practical use for the procedure let alone the study :/

Singelli : Yes it was in fact legit (I wish to god that it wasn't thou.) I believe there was actual video recording of the procedure happening. Just do a google search of "Robert White Monkey Head" and you'll get a list of articles talking about the transplant and some videos of him discussing the procedure. I'll have to look at the dream thing to see why its very eerie.




Edit: Just took a look Sing and talk about wierd?! Kinda scary too. But yes diffenet eerie.

tRUINE: I too wonder what the point was too the study, my guess is that it was either too study the brain and if it could still operate if it was disconnected from the body and reattach to another body that wasn't its own or too see if a it could be a solution to help people who are unable to move their limbs to transplant the head to another body that does have workable arms or legs.

I guess that kinda makes sense, but it's more like "I'm going to cut of the monkey's hand (or head) and see if it functions when I reattach it".

It kinda sounds like the Resident Evil experiments in a way. lol.

You guys should watch this. WARNING: It is rather graphic, and shows a dog's disembodied head being experimented on. It's kind of horrifying, but an integral part of science, and due to that study, we now know a lot more about the process of death--this is why we can bring people back to life sometimes hours after brain death occurs and they can return to a (mostly) normal life.

Science like this that seems extremely cruel and pointless is actually probably something you will one day be grateful for, it paves the way for medical procedures that save lives, and advances our understanding of anatomy and physiology. Yes it's awful, but in my opinion, necessary.

If you want to read more about the video I posted, the full film can be found here, which sheds some light on the useful applications this study had.

I don't agree with the research. I don't care if this could have turned into something that I personally would be positively affected by. There are lines that should not be crossed, and using any living thing as something to be decapitated to see if it can survive a head transplant as too inhumane. I get that animal testing has played a vital role in so many breakthroughs we have had, but I just think this goes too far with it. Honestly, look at how expensive heart transplants are. Imagine the cost a perfected head transplant procedure would cost. This would be something only the wealthy could hope to afford. So we would be decapitating countless animals before perfecting something like this, and only a handful of people would likely ever have it done. Doesn't sound like the ends justify the means here. 

This part isn't really a thing fighting against it. This comment is something I just wondered What if a person had kids in this new body. That kid wouldn't be related to your blood family because the gametes produced by that body are the genes of the body you receive. How weird would that be?

rcarter2 : You make a valid point rcarter2 about whether if someone has a baby in his new body. We see that also in women where while they were inside the womb they were a pair of twins but she managed to "eat" the other twin and got her DNA. So that women is walking around with 2 sets of DNA and it makes it hard for her with DNA testing with regards to a paternaty suit to see if she is the mother of the child when the test says that she isn't the mother, in reality the DNA test shows that it was her sister (who she "ate" when she was inside the womb) is the mother.

Oldschool41 : Well, the twin thing is a bit different. With identical twins, it isn't like the one who absorbs the other twin has the other's DNA because they were already 100% genetically identical. but for the paternity thing, it doesn't make it hard. Fact of the matter is this. Women have all of their eggs that they will ever have in their ovaries when they are born. So if a woman with a head transplant has a kid, it will not have 2 sets of DNA. It will be made from the egg made by the new body, which was made before it was actually even born. So that baby would have no genetic relation to the 'head'. Plain and simple.

The same type of situation goes with the father. The testicles already have the gametes that go through spermatogenesis. Mixing the blood from the head with the body doesn't change that. Thing is, the blood originally in the head will be replaced anyway because blood is made from the body's bone marrow, which the skull has none. So the only DNA you will retain will be stuck in your organ tissues of your head, but not the blood. So any sperm produced by the new body will not be genetic children of the former self.

Lazlo Falconi :  I've seen that before and read up on it when I was doing research for evolution a long time ago.  Very disturbing indeed.

rcarter2 :  I -completely- agree with you that such research just isn't right.  It basically comes down to men playing 'god'.  Not only is it inhumane to do these kinds of experiments, but it's just.. as I said earlier, disturbing.

rcarter2 : I don't think you understand... the point isn't to transplant a person's head, but rather to reattach it, if there's some sort of accident, or more likely to study the way the spinal column works, to help with paralysis. Head transplants in themselves are useless and I don't think anybody would ever opt for that sort of surgery, and you'd have a hell of a time finding a donor for a FULL body transplant. But that's not what this is about.

Lazlo Falconi : Yeah finding a donor for a FULL body transplant would be hard. I think that the research in Full Head Transplant is kind of unimportant since Stem Cell research seems like a more "humanine" way of helping someone be treated for paralysis. However the fact that you can transplant the head of one animal unto a completely different body of the same species is something that might be looked at into the future as we make advancements in machines that we can attach human heads into robot bodies (I think that is one of the reasons why all of those frozen celebrity heads are kept in ice so when the time comes when that is possible their heads can be reattached.)

Lazlo Falconi : You are right. I should have watched the video I had heard about this in my methods course, but we didn't go into any real detail. The way I read it, I understood it as attaching it to a different body. *derp*

dang thats crazy man send me the link so i can watch this video i kinda need proof that just sounds to wacky for me to believe without proof.

tylerflynn : There is a video of some of the surgery going on. Type in Robert White Monkey Head on google and a link for a Youtube video will pop up titled...

"Transplant Surgery - Dr. Robert White"

Click on that and some of the video of the surgery going down will be showned (it's only 3 minutes.) I did watch the video btw. Very cool and very creepy.

WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC SO WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Thats pretty creepy. Given the brain cant survive long without oxygen a quick reatachment is unlikely to be possible unless youre beheaded outside a hospital.
As for spinal study clearly this could have merits but i think its pretty cruel on the monkey. They probably kept it alive for observation too. I think paralysing an animal to see if you can then fix it is pretty cruel. Unless you have a genuinely good theory on how to accomplish it i don't think it should be done.

thenumberone : Correct most likely this type of surgery would have to be doe inside a hospital as any average person cutting your head off is most likely going to cut some major veins since they don't have an medical knowledge for surgery let alone something like this. Also your correct again, during the observation after the head was reattached; the monkey was studied while to was alive (The video that I posted before your post shows the monkey getting fed what appears to be blood.)

Head transplant surgery? Now that's crazy and may never work, but who knows. You could have some funky results from it... imagine using the method for "gender change" purposes (which I don't even agree with in the first place). The only good such research would be for is finding a way to reattach nerve cells, but I believe that can be done without doing head transplant research.

traxusv : Well the sugery DID work as the monkey was alive when his head was reattached
to the body of another monkey, but only for a while, put a Head Transplant surgery is do-able. But you touched on something that is important. Stem Cell research to repair nerve cells could make something as a Head Transplant become unimportant as we could just have cells become specific cells instead of head on another body.

yes. I saw it. It was pretty disgusting.
I thought stem cell would be better too