The Worlds First Heartless Man

[RodeoJoe]

Surfing about I came across this on you tube:

youtu.be/9uXQhGqSk7c(Not working as expected?)

Apparently the guy lived for 5 weeks and died of an underlying disease. Incredible!

[tillycindy]

Women up and down the land would beg to differ! I know but somebody had to say it! x

[pear-shaped]

Hello,

This is so frightening... I don't know why but it reminds me of Doctor Frankenstein - he makes a monster to bring back people from the dead but doesn't see what could happen and go wrong... Especially when the monster he creates asks for the same rights as humans...I can't quite explain my main point - I know my husband wouldn't be here today if it hadn't been for the amazing things that the doctors/surgeons did - and blessings from above.

It is amazing what science can do... Let's just hope all this discovery is used to support and help people who are so poorly...

A bit of a rambling Pear.

[RodeoJoe in reply to pear-shaped]

I sort of understand your fear, I think there's a natural instinct that over rides and makes this kind of treatment seem repulsive.

However there is a movement transhumanist philosophy, the idea that we humans can and should use technology to overcome our biological limits, enhancing our physical and mental capacities. Scientists, researchers, and engineers today are doing just this.

This idea blurs the idea of what a human is. e.g. if you were able to replace all the parts of a human but they kept their brain are they still human? If you then replaced the brain with a computer that somehow had the personality and memories of the person, what do you get.

Now I'm rambling, but a fascinating discussion, here's some discussion from another website:

"Does adding empathy make us human? Does removing the desire to procreate make us inhuman? If I physically alter my brain to behave in a different, non-standard way, am I still human? If I have all my limbs removed and my head spliced onto a robot, am I still human? At first glance these questions might sound inflammatory and hyperbolic, or perhaps surreal and sci-fi, but don’t be fooled: In the next decade, given the continued acceleration of computer technology and biomedicine, we will be forced to confront these questions and attempt to find some answers."

[pear-shaped]

Hello,

I think I know why I felt pretty disturbed by the clip - this is a 'investment opportunity' Vs 'doing for the greater good' syndrome. Fighting for a loved one to have access to medical care and having to prolong life when it is way beyond prolonging has a fine line between it. I don't know the answer to this or all the questions you rightfully pose - no one has this right but the individual themselves.

Let's just all hope and pray that the docs involved in this kind of research ask the individuals what they want to do...

Pear