I've seen this story in several different places so far, mostly with a "headline as a question." Reports are that there are plenty of volunteers for a head transplant. The surgeon says the first human trial will be in China in about ten months. He has grand visions: "I am also performing this operation to prove or refute that our consciousness is created by the brain." The OOOM article ends with his statement " I am for life, I believe in life." This jars a bit, in light of "In a few months, we will sever a body from a head in an unprecedented medical procedure. In this phase, there is no life activity – not in the brain, not anywhere else in the body. The patient is dead, clinically dead."
In other words, the donor will die. Since this is scheduled for China, you can probably guess who's elected.
I don't know if the reporter was selective in picking objectors, but most of the objections were "This can't be done" and not "This is wrong."
Coincidentally, I ran across a Dungeons and Dragons anecdote I'd never heard before: the "Head of Vecna".
I was never in a campaign remotely like that. I am guessing it was entirely male.
ReplyDeleteI always think of Alcasan in That Hideous Strength
ReplyDeleteSo do I, Avi. And when talking about how it reminded me thus, I quoted from the following filk song I wrote some years back, to the tune of the "Pinky and the Brain" theme song.
ReplyDeleteThey're Wither and the Head!
Yes, Wither and the Head!
One worships Satan;
The other is dead!
John Wither has a plan
To damn his fellow man
Down thither.
They're Wither and the Head, Head, Head Head,
Head, Head, Head, Head,
Head!
A killer, guillotined.
Frost took his head fast
Off the Belbury's foul scene
Where it's demon-possessed!
They're Wither and the Head!
Yes, Wither and the Head!
Their infernal scheme
Is brilliantly led,
With Alcasan's cerveau
In Lucifer's control,
Out thither!
They're Wither and the Head, Head, Head, Head,
Head, Head, Head, Head!
*Improvise random syllable of gibberish*