The Head Transplant of 1970

A couple of weeks ago, we learned of a startup trying to perfect a brain transplant, or more specifically, a body transplant. You might be surprised to learn it's been done before -but not on a human being. A spinal cord can not yet be connected to a brain in a manner that would make the body controllable, but 54 years ago, Dr. Robert White thought that paralysis might be a worthwhile price to pay for continued life. He put his extensive neuroscience research to work on transplanting a monkey's head to the body of another monkey. And it worked -for a few days. You don't want to think too much about that monkey's quality of life for those few days. All these years later, there are still doctors and scientists willing to try body transplants, despite the major ethical concerns. You can read more about Dr. White's career here.


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My hope is Dr.White & "Drs." like him (I use the term loosely) endured painful tragedies during their lifetimes for the heinous suffering caused to these monkeys and other animals.
Labeling these "experiments" as "science" or "medical research" doesn't make it right or justify the horror.
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