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World's First Double Hand Transplant

rolla writes "World's first double hand transplant was done in france. The BBC has a good story on it." Well, now I know what to do when my hands wear out from the endless typing, guitar and accordion playing.

13 comments

  1. Holy @#$@# by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now without hands, you know he's been itching to do something for a loooooong time. Now that he has them, wouldn't it just freak you out to jack off with some other dudes hands? Though it could be kind of a turn on. Actually, he is one of the few people on the planet who can simultaneously be fucked, and fuck himself at the same time. Neat stuff.

  2. FIRST SUPERIOR POST by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    THIS IS A
    S
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    ANNOUNCEMENT!

    The smargle"> race is superior!

    All furry creatures - bunnies, hamsters, sheep, muppets, kitties and fuzzy smarglegoblins -
    realize this, for they are allies of the smargle.

    Do not attempt to challenge the smargle, for then you will surely gain a smargle right in the *bleep*.

    You may now look to your right.

    Plekt you!
    - smargle frep

  3. Re:Veggie clones, huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    as far as I now its never been proven your "self" is contained in the brain or in every cell in your body a person with no head may indeed still be thre wondering what the hell is going on in some degree. Seems like a pretty scetchy area perhaps we just need to start looking after the body we are given when we are born and forget about clones ?:)I doubt anyone would get sick if we all lived in some pristen forest and lived on fruit, humans are the only animal that gets sick all the time

  4. The really crucial issue is masturbating. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    Jeesus, that would suck if you had to learn that again.


  5. This is GOOD!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This type of thing could not occur without the sharing of scientific information. This is directly offensive to capitalists who seek to enslave you because they believe all information must be made proprietary and common people should never have access to their secrets. These people want a future in which the entire human genetic code is patented under a permanent patent system. Not paying license fees will cause the corporation which owns the specific copyright on your genetic code to reclaim your body. You will be executed and your body put to use on a new human who does not desire to disobey their capitalist overlords. Join us now and spread our socialist GPL to the ends of the Earth. Only this way will we make all peoples free and equal.

  6. More details dammit. by maelstrom · · Score: 1
    I wish these so called science stories would go a little bit more in depth. I'd be interested to know what kind of techniques are used to bind together the nerves, arteries and such.

    I'm also really curious as to how the patient finally responds to the new body parts. How does the brain and the nervous system react to the foreign parts. Does it take training to begin using the new hands or is this a plug-n-play procedure?

    --
    The more you know, the less you understand.
  7. Wonder what's next ... by Ray+Yang · · Score: 1

    You know, I wonder if they'll ever manage brain transplants. Maybe transplants of people with dying bodies but healthy brains into brain-dead people with healthy bodies, for starters. That would probably make headlines instead of getting a yawn.

  8. Absolutely incredible! by No+Such+Agency · · Score: 1

    Well, my title says it all. I just wanted to remind everyone how absolutely amazing this kind of medical advance is. I mean, we often feel rather jadedly unexcited when we hear that some new body part can be transplanted, or that monkeys have been cloned by embryo-splitting, or some other scientific breakthrough, but I'd just like to remind everyone that while you can make code do pretty much whatever you want, the Real World is somewhat more difficult :-)

    Now, maybe this can be used to save those of us with early-onset repetitive strain injuries... Quake on!

    --
    Freedom: "I won't!"
  9. Veggie clones, huh? by No+Such+Agency · · Score: 1

    That's tricky ethical ground... (Caveat: if I lost a body part, I'd probably be saying "fuck ethics!"). I mean, even if you could successfully create an anacephalic/microcephalic clone of yourself (not a trivial technical question, BTW), that clone would still legally be considered a person, just as naturally occurring anacephalic babies are. I'm no lawyer, but I suspect keeping them on life support and harvesting body parts from them at will would not be allowed in any jurisdiction...

    --
    Freedom: "I won't!"
    1. Re:Veggie clones, huh? by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

      If such a body could be grown "sans head", I believe that the legal problem would go out the window.

      A body with everything below the brain stem would not be a legally protectable person under current interpretation of (US) law if My understanding is correct, IANAL though.

      It could be a huge ethical problem though.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    2. Re:Veggie clones, huh? by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

      >> I doubt anyone would get sick if we all lived in some pristen forest and lived on fruit, humans are the only animal that gets sick all the time

      Only because we take the time and effort to save our weak and infirmed. It's a moral/ethical problem, we can't simply allow people to die because they're imperfect now that we have the ability to save them, but by saving them we cause their genes to be included in the gene pool and allow that infirmity or weakness to get passed into the next generation.

      Also, humans are also the only animal where every society has contact with all of the rest through one means or another, imagine the most off the wall documentary you've ever seen, one where people in the deepest reaches of South America are shown doing tribal dances or whatever, there had to be a western photographer there to get those images. If he had the flu, or measles he would have wiped them all out.

      In the animal kingdon there is not the same level of travel that exposes them to foreign virus infections, and since there is no medicine the sick and weak die off quickly or are killed by predators and eaten. When humans lived a more or less nomadic lifestyle I'd be willing to bet that fewer people were sick then. Primarily because you were either healthy or dead.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  10. Prosthetics and cloning? by Guywien · · Score: 1

    Microsurgery is really taking big strides towards what many poeple believe to be the dawn of prosthetic body parts grown by cloning humans. The cloning process should not only clone a human, but to be able to make the clone a "vegetable". This will be able to prevent the need to actually kill the clone for its body parts. Microsurgery plays its part in the prosthetics by allowing the transplant of body parts and of connection of the nervous system to the neurons of the body part desired. As a result I conclude that life expectancy will rise. By the way, it is very good.

  11. Hand Shmand by Plasmic · · Score: 2

    This just sets the precedent for the double brain transplants..