Brain Transplant
Medical technology has seemed to advance enough so that doctors are able to perform brain transplants. So far this procedure has only been successfully performed on animals, and now doctors hope to perform this procedure on humans.
I believe brain transplants should not be performed at all, and especially not on humans because of the numerous problems and side effects that could arise.
Even though brain transplants can be successfully performed on animals, this does not mean that it will be successful with humans. The human brain is much more complex than the brain of animals, so there will be many more complications during surgery. For example, the healthy brain that was removed could have been damaged in some way without the doctors knowing it. It would also be very difficult to attach a person's brain in a different body because of the millions of neurons that send and receive messages to and from all over the body. It would be almost impossible to reconnect every single neuron, and without them a person could not function normally. Many psychological effects are also possible because the human brain is so complex. Our brain makes us who we are, and with a different brain we would no longer be unique. A person with a different brain would seem to be a total stranger and in many ways they would be. Hopefully these dangerous side effects will convince doctors not to perform this procedure on humans.
The advancement of technology can be very beneficial to everyone, but I do not believe that this medical technology of brain transplants will help anyone. We were all born with one brain and through childhood to adolescence our mind developed into who we are. No one should steal our identity from us, even if we are seriously injured, and change it to a completely new one. Also for the people who have died with healthy brains, that was their identity and it should not be given to anyone else.
Another problem with brain transplants is how can doctors choose what are "healthy" or "normal" brains. An elderly person who has died would have an aged brain that would not be as efficient as a younger person's brain. Then would doctors have to find healthy brains of the same age as the person who
The only logical conclusion to derive from this observation is that what we consider to be ourselves is not our bodies. As a result, an individual’s personal identity cannot be rooted in just his or her body, unlike what body theorists would like to
Specific Purpose: After listening to my speech, my audience will know the history of organ transplants/transplantation and its medical advances over the years.
From all existing creatures, we humans differ because we are able to use our brain to make decisions. In
Several tests are done in order to determine if a patient meets these criteria, and this can be done by physicians and neurologists.... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved January 19, 2014, from nia.nih.gov: http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers/publication/part-1-basics-healthy-brain/inside-human-brain. a.
In the real life, it is hard to judge our personal identity: we are aware of who we are every second and minute, we also are able to check our appearance that we have known since we were born from looking at mirror. We know “I am myself” all the time.
We often believe that others are more like ourselves than they really are. Thus, our
...r differences between particular humans and changes within one particular brain. One obvious example of this objection is that stroke victims lose brain function and the mental states associated with them, but in time they are able to relearn mental states using different parts of their brain. This certainly discounts the fact that one mental state is identical to one brain state.
These electrical signals arise from ion fluxes produced by nerve cell membranes that are selectively permeable to different ions. Neurons and glia (cells that support neurons) are specialized cells for electrical signaling over long distances. Understanding neuronal structure is important for understanding neuronal function. The number of synaptic inputs received by each nerve cell in our (human) nervous system varies from 1-100,000! This wide range reflects the fundamental purpose of nerve cells, to integrate information from other neurons.
We can start by asking will the identity change - if we change someone's' brain by another's? "He is not the same" - we say of someone with a brain injury. If a partial alteration of the brain causes such sea change (however partial) in the determinants of identity - it seems safe to assume that a replacement of one's brain by another will result in a total change of identity, to the point of its abolition and replacement by another.
Sperry, R. W. (1982, September 24). Some Effects of Disconnecting the Cerebral Hemispheres. Science Megazine, 217, 1223-1226.
could be modified or expanded upon given what has been learned about the brain through
The brain consists of both neurons and glia cells. The neurons, which are cells housed in a cell body called a Soma, have branches which extend from them, referred to as dendrites. From these dendrites extend axons which send and receive impulses, ending at junction points called synapses. It is at these synapse points that the transfer of information takes place.
Kudrow reportedly refused to pay him over $50 grand in legal fees which came from her earnings on Friends including reruns and other films, movies, plays, etc. Howard said that the two had a verbal agreement which entitled him to receive 10% of Kudrow's income as her manager. He went on to explain that after many years of working with Kudrow how she just stopped paying him. He rationalized how he helped Kudrow find significant roles during the course of her career and that he was instrumental in salary talks with the key people of NBC, however Howard acknowledges the fact that he was not active in the decision making process relating to her
The question that has been asked for so long is, "Are the mind and brain two different things?" This can be answered with the following concept that is known as dualism. Dualism is a theory that states that the universe, all of reality, is made up of two substances. The two substances are the physical substance and the mind. The physical substance is matter, the body or in general anything that takes up space. As for the mind, it is something immaterial, it is not physical or takes up any space. Philosophers argue that the mind and body are two different things that are capable of affecting one another. Descartes, a dualist, defines the mind as a thinking thing that thinks and the body as an extended thing that does not think. Descartes introduces
Those similarities make it infinitely easier to make computer models of the brain. "We already have built models which allow us to understand what is going on more quickly," Sutton notes. "Many types of mental illness may result from disorders of this organization. Understanding the details of what is happening will allow us to help real people with real suffering."