This
week an Italian neuroscientist named Dr. Sergio
Canavero released
a paper outlining how to perform a human head transplant.The
scientist made headlines by announcing that head transplants (which
can also be called body transplants) are feasible and can be done in
the near future on humans. Supposedly the procedure has already been
performed on other mammals such as rhesus monkeys. The procedure
involves rapidly chilling the two bodies involved, cutting off their
heads, attaching one head to the other head, and then gradually
warming the body of the transplant recipient, who has an old head and
a new body.
If such procedures are done any time soon, they will probably be done
on special cases, such as people who have been paralyzed from the
neck down. But what about using a body transplant as a radical means
of extending human life? Let us explore the feasibility of that. The
big question is: even if it were possible for a person to extend his
life by getting a body transplant for his aging body, how could the
young body be acquired? I can imagine several different ways.
Acquiring a Body
From a Newly Deceased Youth
One way to get bodies for body transplants would be to use bodies
from young people who had died naturally, from events such as
gunshots to the head or drug overdoses. This method would be fairly
uncontroversial, as you would only be using a body that would
otherwise soon rot in the grave. But the main problem with this
method is that only a small number of people could use it, because
relatively few young people die.
Acquiring a Body
From a Human Raised to be a Body Donor
Another method would be to raise ordinary humans specifically for the
purpose of serving as body donors. The humans might be told from an
early age that they were not destined to live beyond an age of about
20, at which point they would serve as body donors. This method is
technically feasible, but morally unacceptable and appalling. The
film Never Let Me Go offered a chilling look at a future
society in which a group of young people were raised purely to be
organ donors. Raising humans to be used for body transplants would be
even more chilling and repugnant.
Acquiring a Body
From an Unconscious Human Raised to be a Body Donor
Another method would be to somehow raise unconscious humans
specifically for the purpose of serving as body donors. The humans
would somehow have the higher levels of their brain removed as early
as possible, so that they would have no consciousness, personality,
or memory. But the lower brain stem functions of these humans would
be left intact, so that their hearts and lungs could keep working.
They might be fed intravenously.
While a little less appalling than the previous method, this method
would also be very morally objectionable to many people. Somehow
there is something revolting about the idea of a human body slowly
growing on a bed for 18 years, while the body is attached to a bunch
of sensors, wires, and tubes.
Growing a Human
Body in a Lab
Another method would involve growing a human body in a lab, through
some type of technique that might allow the quick growth of a human
body. Scientists have been able to grow organs in a lab, and they
might somehow progress to growing an entire full-grown body in a lab,
possibly by speeding up the normal human growth mechanisms.
Creating a Human
Body Through 3D Printing
Another method might dispense with growth of the body altogether, and
attempt to simply assemble or produce a full-grown human body.
Scientists have recently been able to create an artificial ear by
using 3D printing. If 3D printing progresses sufficiently, we might
be able to somehow print layer-by-layer a 3D body that could be used
as a donor for body transplants. It is likely that 3D printing could
one day be used to produce something that resembles a dead human
body, but whether it could be used to produce something like a
functional human body, with all the processes working, is an
unanswered question.
Using an
Electronic Body for a Body Transplant
Still another method (and one that seems relatively sound from an
ethical standpoint) is the method of creating an electronic or
robotic replica of the human body, and using that for body
transplants. This might be advantageous from the standpoint of
greatly extending the human lifespan. Rather than having at 80 a body
transplant that would give you another 60 years of life, and then
having to worry about getting another body transplant 60 years later,
you could instead get an electronic and robotic body that might last
you for 500 years. But we might not have the technology for using
electronic body transplants for many decades, perhaps not until the
22nd century.
Downsides of
Body Transplants
There would seem to be two main downsides of having a body transplant
as a way of extending your life.
The first negative aspect is that if you had a body transplant when
you were very old, you might then have a nice young body, but you
would still have the same wrinkled old face and the same old aging brain. So imagine if you lived to
80 and had a body transplant. You might then five years later get
Alzheimer's disease. Rather than living a few years in senility, you
might live sixty years in senility. Not much of a bargain.
Another negative aspect is the possibility that the body transplant
would go wrong, and that you would end up with a new body, but be
totally paralyzed. You might then live 60 additional years in such a
state of paralysis. Of course, your doctors might try a second body
transplant operation to fix the problem. But perhaps you didn't have
the money to pay for that. How could you earn it, with your body
being paralyzed?
Conclusion
In summary, I conclude that there is some possibility of a body
transplant in your future, but only if you are young and rich (or
someone who will become rich). People who fall into neither of these
categories (such as myself) must hope for some simpler method of life
extension, such as a nice simple youth pill.
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