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Biotech Company To Attempt Revitalizing Nervous Systems of Brain-Dead Patients (telegraph.co.uk)
Sarah Knapton, writing for The Telegraph: A groundbreaking trial to see if it is possible to regenerate the brains of dead people, has won approval from health watchdogs. A biotech company called BioQuark in the U.S. has been granted ethical permission to recruit 20 patients who have been declared clinically dead from a traumatic brain injury, to test whether parts of their central nervous system can be brought back to life. Scientists will use a combination of therapies, which include injecting the brain with stem cells and a cocktail of peptides, as well as deploying lasers and nerve stimulation techniques which have been shown to bring patients out of comas. The trial participants will have been certified dead and only kept alive through life support. They will be monitored for several months using brain imaging equipment to look for signs of regeneration, particularly in the upper spinal cord -- the lowest region of the brain stem which controls independent breathing and heartbeat.
I hear it's a magical place.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
"This research headed by Dr. Herbert West of Miskatonic University...."
...like, say, Ted Chiang's "Understand".
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
Dead people don't pay taxes. I can see the 1% lining up for this.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I heard the taxes are very low there.
Does that explain the infrastructure problem?
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
National mandatory dress code: full tuxedos
Division of Umbrella Corp? Just asking ...
[Insert pithy quote here]
I'm frightened that they'll turn comatose/brain-dead people into locked-in people. I consider the latter a fate worse than death.
I was thinking something similar. What exactly happens if they get this person 10% functioning again? Is euthanasia legal for someone previously declared dead or are they now forced to keep this half alive person alive? What if they regain their brain but not their memory (see the book Worthing Saga). Is this a desirable outcome where you have an adult with the brain of an infant that now has to relearn everything? Even if it's 100% and they can eventually return to normal intelligence, you now have 10+ years of learning to walk, read, write, and all the other things we learn in childhood. I'm not even sure that is a desirable outcome.
I mean, aren't they afraid of the competition?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
> Republican members of Congress are there because money paid for them to be there.
The word "Republican" is irrelevant to the truth of this statement. With, or without this word, the statement is factually true.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
The end goal is not re-animating the dead. The goal is regenerative medicine for the still living who have severe brain damage. They're just experimenting on the dead first for ethical reasons.
I'm frightened that they'll turn comatose/brain-dead people into locked-in people. I consider the latter a fate worse than death.
I was thinking something similar. What exactly happens if they get this person 10% functioning again? Is euthanasia legal for someone previously declared dead or are they now forced to keep this half alive person alive? What if they regain their brain but not their memory (see the book Worthing Saga). Is this a desirable outcome where you have an adult with the brain of an infant that now has to relearn everything? Even if it's 100% and they can eventually return to normal intelligence, you now have 10+ years of learning to walk, read, write, and all the other things we learn in childhood. I'm not even sure that is a desirable outcome.
Memory, intelligence, and many basic functions are unlikely to "come back".
These are patients who died of a TBI – on which severed the spinal cord from the brain, basically. With TBI of that degree, it is usually due to a strong blow to the head. They will have suffered subdural hematomae. They will likely have encephalomalacia – parts of the brain that were bruised in the TBI, and have subsequently died.
Reconnecting the autonomic nervous system would be a great thing, but the patients ought to be chosen very carefully. If there are pockets of spinal fluid in their skulls, where there used to be brain, then it will not come back. Ever. Encephalomalacia. Look it up. Brain does not regrow. It dies, and is replaced by spinal fluid, surrounded by a scar layer, separating it from the remaining "live" brain tissue.
The brain is dynamic, and can shift functions to other regions, but to awaken as a child in an adult's body is a horror that I cannot imagine.
And the legal aspects: After being declared 'dead', you are no longer a person. The resurrected human — what would they be? "New births"? "Revival of said ex-person, w/all debts still in-place"?
There was little mention of animal trials.
TBIs are not fun things.
in addition to being a registered organ donor (especially if you ride a motorcycle). Good organs are needed by many living people.
I was 100 percent with you until you wrote the motorcycle bit. Did you go to school to become such a jerk?
Or do non motorcycle riders live forever?
Jerk.
ER Physicians call them "Donor Cycles". Gallows humor, but pretty much true.
I owned and rode a Yamaha 650 for many years. It was a delight, especially on mountain roads. But those guys who lane-split in heavy LA traffic at 90 mph? They are just asking for a random event that will be the end (such as an unanticipated lane-change).
I was once behind a kid, maybe 16, on a high-power motorcycle. He clearly did not know how to ride safely --- he kept looking back behind him as he gained speed to 100 mph or so. Then - he stood on the seat of the bike and raised his arms to the sky for 1/8 to 1/4 mile. That kid? A soon-to-be organ donor
Ride responsibly, assuming that no cars can actually see you. Always have two "safety maneuvers" in mind at ever given moment if you are in car traffic. This way, you don't die.
And at any rate, among motorcyclists, regarding the topic of accidents, everyone agrees that it is a matter of "when", not "if".
It's actually the other way round. Once it has been established that the constantly changing network of neurochemical pathways has irrevocably turned into pudding, brain death is declared.