Russian Scientists Keep A Severed Dog's Head Alive

lucky760says...

WHOA! That's very interesting. I think it's possible for the head to twitch the way it did because they don't show us exactly how much neck is left. Still, though, why wouldn't they show the back of the neck?

lucky760says...

I wonder if it's studies like this that spawned the first premonitions of future generations with technology to keep people alive in head-only fashion. (E.g., Futurama episodes where today's celebrities live in glass jars of the future.)

sfjockosays...

It seems like it's probably true, though this footage may be a re-enactment. :
"However, while the film could have been re-staged for the camera, it almost certainly depicts a series of real experiments. Bryukhonenko's work with canine circulation seems obscure today, but at the time was well publicized; his decapitation experiment even remarked upon by George Bernard Shaw.[1] Bryukhonenko's procedures are attested to in numerous books and medical papers, with some sources providing detailed technical information on the operations shown in the film. These texts also shed light on failures not mentioned in the film. For example, the severed heads survived only minutes in artificial circulation, while the resuscitated dogs often died after a few days.
Perhaps most importantly, Bryukhonenko's research was vital to the development of open-heart procedures in Russia. He was one of the leaders of the Research Institute of Experimental Surgery, where Professor A.A. Vishnevsky performed the first Soviet open-heart operation in 1957. Bryukhonenko developed a new version of the autojektor (for use on humans) in the same year; it can be seen today on display at the Museum of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Scientific Center of Cardiovascular Surgery in Russia. Bryukhonenko was awarded the prestigious Lenin Prize posthumously."
(wikipedia - though, especially in cases such as this, wikipedia warrants fact-confirmation; everthing else I've seen online points to this being true - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiments_in_the_Revival_of_Organisms)
Full video (20 min) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap1co5ZZHYE
http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,851883,00.html
http://analytics.ex.ru/cgi-bin/txtnscr.pl?node=578&txt=460&lang=2&sh=1



vairetubesays...

the body exists to provide the brain with a vehicle and nutrition, so if you can alternately provide those things... combine this with the asimo you can control with your mind... might not be so bad if non-existence is not your preferred alternative.

you know we've all wondered about heads being kept alive... dont condemn the one guy who tried it and (maybe) got it to work.. he wasnt doing it for fun

yourhydrasays...

i have to say its a hard issue, i have a problem with anyone who says "its absolutely unjust" or anyone that says "its completely justified" because it is not a clear line. science has to and will move forward, but we do have to watch who or what we step on in order to do that. this dog is only alive for a minimum amount of time as i understand, so it is not forced to live this way for its lifetime (unlike hundreds of cases of vegetative state humans who wish to die and are forced to live under some American law of god) but if this dog is in extreme pain or under enormous psychological distress, that becomes very inhumane. that doesn't SEEM to be the case here, but I am in no position to judge that and neither in anyone else who watches this.

RadHazGsays...

such the old argument, is it moral to use research that was acquired in possibly cruel or inhumane ways to the benefit of others later?

one would argue that the damage is done, the information is now available and it would be a) a waste not to use valuable information to save lives, no matter how it was originally obtained and b) gives value to the person/animal so that their suffering was not in vain.

the other side is that to use information obtained illegally or through cruel/"evil" practices means the user of said information would "taint" his own work, that any subsequent work using this information is only condoning the actions previously taken.

and this plants us smack dab right into the argument about waterboarding oddly enough.

there are many shades of course, almost nothing is ever as black and white as that. personally im of a bit of both. the information is here, if we can save lives or improve them with what we now know, then so much the better. it IS however humanity's responsibility to prevent anything like this from happening, or if it is happening, to stop it. even if it's on the verge of making a phenomenal breakthrough, the moral cost is simply to high.

Send this Article to a Friend



Separate multiple emails with a comma (,); limit 5 recipients






Your email has been sent successfully!

Manage this Video in Your Playlists




notify when someone comments
X

This website uses cookies.

This website uses cookies to improve user experience. By using this website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

I agree
  
Learn More