X-Message-Number: 1934
From:  (Carl Feynman)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: A living head?
Message-ID: <>
Date: 10 Mar 93 08:48:48 GMT
References: <>


In article <>  (Joni 
Jarvenkyla) writes:

   Have there been experiments of getting "living heads"?

An extensive review of this topic may be found in the book "If we can
keep a severed head alive" by Chet Fleming.  Mr. Fleming has patented
the technology neccesary to perfuse an isolated head, in an attempt to
discourage such research until an ethical concensus can be formed as
to whether it sould be allowed.  What a wuss.

The rest of this message is derived from this book.

Expeiments in the maintenance of isolated heads have been performed in
animals.  These experiments were done not in order to develop the
technology, but in order to isolate the head from the metabolism of
the rest of the body, as part of fundamental research into the
physiology of the brain.  The brainwaves persisted for several hours,
but the animals were sedated into unconsciousness, so it's not clear
how much mental functioning was maintained.

>From a theoretical point of view, it would appear perfectly feasible
to maintain a severed human head indefinitely, using a heart-lung
machine, an artificial kidney, a hyperalimentation pump to supply
nutrients, and periodic blood replacements to keep the blood chemistry
from getting too far off normal.  The cost would be immense and it
wouldn't be much fun.

Grafting a head onto another individual of the same species has been
done several times, with good results.  The transplated heads
apparently maintained normal mental functions for 36 hours, until the
experimenters killed them.  Of course, they had no muscular control
over the host body.  This course of research was discontinued because
it was too icky.

The book is published by Polinym Press, PO BOx 22140, St. Louis MO
63116.  The copy I have was distributed by Loompanics Press, which is
probably easier to get a hold of.  The author also published an
article on the topic in the Whole Earth review about five years ago.

--carlf

"Anything that can be done must be done."

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