Project outline for the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage

Re:Project outline for the first human head transplantation ... by Cthulhu_ on Tuesday May 27, 2014 @03:27AM (#7803315)

There have been experiments that show getting 'young' blood transfused has a rejuvinating effect; might be that works on the brain too to some degree. But for now, there will be limits. Not to mention moral issues - is a clone of you sentient? Can you kill it off in order to preserve your own self?

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Re:Project outline for the first human head transplantation ... by adrianN on Tuesday May 27, 2014 @03:41AM (#7803350)

If it is a brainless clone then it's not sentient. I don't see the moral issue. It's the same as growing a replacement organ, you just grow all of them at once.

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Re:Project outline for the first human head transplantation ... by JetSpiegel on Tuesday May 27, 2014 @05:34AM (#7803643)

> There have been experiments that show getting 'young' blood transfused has a rejuvinating effect

As proven in the seminal paper by Stoker, B

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Re:Project outline for the first human head transplantation ... by zizee on Tuesday May 27, 2014 @08:18AM (#7804040)

There have been experiments that show getting 'young' blood transfused has a rejuvinating effect

Indeed, those links I supplied in my original comment were to that effect.

moral issues - is a clone of you sentient

Definitely an interesting issue, but one I tried to head off by writing "brainless clone" in my original comment. I guess there would be moral questions about how one could create a clone without a brain. The easiest would be to interfere with the fetus to cause brain death, which does introduce the moral quandary.

Personally, I would say that a clone with its brain intact should be considered it's own person. A clone would essentially be your identical twin, just a different age. It would not be ok to kill off your twin, even if they have a goatee :-)

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