i don't have a problem with this at all. Obviously the volunteer is not happy with his quality of life and probably has no interest in living the way he is so what does he have to lose? This is somebody's personal decision, who am I to say they are wrong?
I wouldn't have a problem with it either if the doctor wasn't making over 10 million bucks on this total fraudulent BS.
If a doctor thinks he can change medical history he should do it for non profit the first time around.
I don't see how that can possibly work. Basically all the surgeon can do is sow together the nerves and spinal cord, and hope the axons will regrow to where they are supposed to go. Plus, when you severe a nerve body from it's axon, the axon dies... since nerve bodies are all over the place (the brain, spinal cord, various ganglia outside of the spinal cord) it seems to me that you would just end up with a lot degrading axons (going in every direction) and a lot of neural connections that will never go back to where they are supposed to go.
Something something electrical shocks.
I really don't think you can sever the spinal cord and then glue it back together, wouldn't it be like trying to fix a broken electrical cord by jamming the cable together and taping it and hoping that the wiring grows together properly?
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Not that I believe any of this story, but wouldn't it make more sense to use his "magic ingredient" to heal people who have had spinal cord injuries? That would take all the other extremely complicated parts of the surgery out of the equation and just require repairing the spinal cord, which would be a big enough breakthrough on its own.
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I really don't think you can sever the spinal cord and then glue it back together, wouldn't it be like trying to fix a broken electrical cord by jamming the cable together and taping it and hoping that the wiring grows together properly?
I do think it's possible eventually. Just not now. On the other hand, as creepy and morally grey (irresponsible?) as this is, it could be a step forward, success or fail. Most likely fail.
I really don't think you can sever the spinal cord and then glue it back together, wouldn't it be like trying to fix a broken electrical cord by jamming the cable together and taping it and hoping that the wiring grows together properly?
Spinal research has come a long way and continues to evolve. They are very close to restoring feeling and movement to many types of paralysation victims. Many things we thought were impossible in medicine have become possible. And unlike an electrical cord, the body can heal.
I would agree this wouldn't work now. But it may not be far off. With genetics, stem cells, other ways of teaching the body to heal we didn't have 20 years ago, I could see it. We have just had successful hand and face tranaplants in the last five years. They were once thiught impossible. The only hurdle here is the spinal cord. A hurdle yes, but I can't see how it's an impossibility.
Spinal research has come a long way and continues to evolve. They are very close to restoring feeling and movement to many types of paralysation victims. Many things we thought were impossible in medicine have become possible. And unlike an electrical cord, the body can heal.
I would agree this wouldn't work now. But it may not be far off. With genetics, stem cells, other ways of teaching the body to heal we didn't have 20 years ago, I could see it. We have just had successful hand and face tranaplants in the last five years. They were once thiught impossible. The only hurdle here is the spinal cord. A hurdle yes, but I can't see how it's an impossibility.
Captain is right though - spinal cord researchers are making progress on regeneration, but getting a nerve to transverse a gap and connect with the correct end on the other side of the gap is an outstanding problem.
Last edited by Mike F; 04-11-2015 at 03:43 PM.
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Captain is right though - spinal cord researchers are making progress on regeneration, but getting a nerve to transverse a gap and connect with the correct end on the other side of the gap is an outstanding problem.
I actually wonder if that would be necessary. I remember reading that as infants, our brains don't know what nerve is going where, and the brain learns as you grow. Perhaps just having any nerve connect to any other nerve might be enough, and given time the brain could re-learn where the nerve is going. Obviously many other hurdles, but connecting to the "right" nerve may not be necessary.
I actually wonder if that would be necessary. I remember reading that as infants, our brains don't know what nerve is going where, and the brain learns as you grow. Perhaps just having any nerve connect to any other nerve might be enough, and given time the brain could re-learn where the nerve is going. Obviously many other hurdles, but connecting to the "right" nerve may not be necessary.
Captain is right though - spinal cord researchers are making progress on regeneration, but getting a nerve to transverse a gap and connect with the correct end on the other side of the gap is an outstanding problem.
A nerve is really a cord with a lot of neuron axons in it. When it is cut, the portion distal to the cell body will die (a nerve cell is a cell body with a very long axon). For example, neurons with their cell body in the brain may have an axon that extends all the way to down the spinal cord to motor neurons of the legs (one cell may be several feet long). If you cut that axon at the neck, the remaining axon will degrade/die because it does not have a cell body to support it. This means you cannot re-connect a cut neuron... you can sow together the outer sheath of the nerve, but you cannot sow together neurons inside of the nerve. They are just too small! Therefore the cut axon will degrade and will need to be replaced with a new one growing from the cell body.
Neurons do have the capacity to regrow their cut axons. After being cut, some neurons will re-grow to the correct destination, but others will not. To restore voluntary leg movements, you would need the re-growing axon to transverse the entire spinal cord, from cut region in the neck to the lumbo-sacral spinal cord region. The chances of that happening are not good.
Captain is right though - spinal cord researchers are making progress on regeneration, but getting a nerve to transverse a gap and connect with the correct end on the other side of the gap is an outstanding problem.
I don't disagree, but it's not a physical impossiblity like breaking time/space barriers.
How many times have we redefined the body and medicine? I would liken this to when we figured out blood types. For a while we were trying to do tranaplants, and it seldom worked, because of rejection. Which we couldn't figure out. And it seemed like we never would. Why is the blood or organ doing this? It should be fine! Guess it just isn't possible. Body was not meant to do this.
Then blood types were figured out and it was a whole new era.
This is a big hurdle. But that's all it is, a hurdle. Once we figure out the underlying reason, and/or develop nano or genetics to bridge thar gap. Whole new era.
Last edited by Daradon; 04-12-2015 at 08:18 AM.
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Thanks for the outstanding discussion guys. I guess I was wondering about the rejection status, I read where they attempted this in the past, but it only went as far as life continuation, circulatory type of of stuff, the Monkey they did it on, and the dog that they did it on didn't gain control of the other body, it just used the other systems.
But rejection of the head would be interesting, wouldn't it basically be the bodies immune system attacking and trying to kill the head?
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