LYON, France, Sept. 30 1998 ---> World's first successful hand/arm transplant. LOUISVILLE, Ky., Jan. 25, 1999 ---> Only, for the second time, the same task is accomplished. LYON, France, Jan. 14 2000 ---> This time it's a double Are we going too fast? What of the risks because of the immune suppression? Since death is a possible result, should the doctors not operate on family men for the time being? If it were you, would you go for it knowing that you might loose more of you natural arm if the operation is a failure or that you might even die? Would you take part in this if you were a doctor? I think it would be interesting to see where others stand here. Seek the Lord, ISDAMan
If you were in a terrible accident and were left a paraplegic or a quadraplegic, would you let them experiment on you with artificial and cybernetic parts? Besides your life, what could you possibly lose? I would take the risk. If I lose more of the limb, it had become useless anyway. If I lose my life, I die in pursuit of knowledge and with the the hope that what was learned from my demise will one day help someone else live. ------------------ I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will fight, kill, and die for your right to say it.
Oxygen, Our thoughts agree. Only, I would not take the chance for the very same reason. I would hope to be able to help someone else live because they could see me live with less than them or the same as them. I would let them experiment to a point. I too would like to help progress the aid we can offer in a physical nature. I would have to check it against the aid I can offer in the spiritual to see if it does not clash. It's a really hard choice. I'd venture to say it's as hard as the choice of weather or not to shoot a kid with what looks like a gun. The target, in this case, is yourself. Even if death does not come, suffering can be great. The drugs needed pack a real punch. On top of that, there's the emotional stress. You have an arm from birth. You loose it in great pain. Though the rest be only a nub, you'll hold that little bit dear. Then, you gain a new arm. You begin to love it and feel good about yourself again. To loose it again could break even the strongest of men. The second time in harms way is always worse than the first. The second time, you know what's going to happen. Trush in God in those hard times, He will always make a way, ISDAMan [This message has been edited by ISDAMan (edited January 25, 2000).]
What a coincidence that you should bring this up just now, ISDAMan. Our area was hit with a massive snow storm today. Just this evening, I happened to be walking past a window in my home and noticed my neighbor's teenage son and daughter outside, shoveling their driveway. Up until today, although I have seen the teens coming and going to school, after school activities and such, I had never seen them doing any work around the house. Their mother was always the one who seemed to be doing the chores. For some reason, what caught my attention was the third teenage son who was standing out there. He was talking with them, laughing with them and seemed to be offering encouragement, but, he was not shoveling along with them. While the two were shoveling, all three were engaged in a conversation which I could not hear but which they all seemed to be enjoying. My attention was drawn to the one who was not shoveling because he seemed to be the one who was bringing the most joy to the situation while the others were doing the hard task of shoveling the deep and heavy snow. All of a sudden, I realized... The third teenager, who was not shoveling, no longer had a right arm. It was gone from about nine inches below the shoulder. Normally, my heart would have sunk at that realization. However, after first having observed their interaction and their joy in each other's company, such was not the case. It was apparent to me that, regardless of their individual physical capabilities, they were all contributing something special to their family life, to each other and, in a sense, to the world...
The short side of my feelings on this is that we can already replace hips with plastic, skin on your face with skin from someone else's butt, and even change out a heart or two, as necessary. It's pretty cool we're trying to transplant larger structures, but I don't see the risks as any different. If you were a family man who was going to die over the next few years 'cause your ticker went bad ...? It seems like the same considerations. A person is who they are, restoration of the perceived "lack" (of body function) does not change the spirit, only the manner in which it interacts with the world. Specifically, Nah, I don't think we're going too fast. And new techniques like that ... it's a central motif to what I would want, were I a doctor. Quite frankly, when we're transplanting Grandpa's testicles into Billy so he and Jeannie-Sue can have four or six or eight little bundles of joy ... then we'll be going too far. The sad thing is that such an idea as that is unnecessary because of other biotechnologies, but we'll get around to it just because we can. Like cybernetics ... keep it to the necessary. Can you imagine a world of Frankenstein's Vanity? Or a post-modern anime world where high school kids no longer compete over brands of car stereo, but of cybernetic eye-sensors? But that's all moralizing .... Heck, pretty soon they'll either reprogram your genes in utero, or replace you with a perfected clone when your body starts to go. But as long as people keep ripping their arms off in threshers, and so forth, I think we're on the right track. thanx, Tiassa ------------------ Take a side you say, it's black and gray. And all the hunters take the hunted merrily out to play. We are one, you say, but who are you? You're all too busy reaping in the things you never sown. And this beast must go on and on and on .... Nobody gives a damn. (Floater; "Beast")
I must have watched way too much television, I'm trying to think of a good response and all I keep thinking of is that darn "Six Million Dollar Man" show that use to be on. You know..."we can build him better, stronger, faster..." Actually, I did like that sound that his bionic eye use to make, that doot, doot, doot noise.
