Posted by
emmett
on from the sinister-dexter dept.
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.
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
>> 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
Slashdot Mirror
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
>> 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
This just sets the precedent for the double brain transplants..