Full-Body Transplant??

[Callwaiting]

Hey guys!

Today I remembered a conversation I had with a friend a while ago on the topic of people's bodies. Specifically, what defines a person, and should a brain transplant be called a Full-body transplant?

This probably sounds stupid, so I'll try to explain it better. The question is - can you ever amputate "yourself"? If you had your legs, arms, bones and organs replaced by machines would you still be a person?
At what point do you cease to exist as a human?

Lol, that's a lot harder to type than it was to discuss, but I thought some of you might be interested in this.

[The Batman]

This is more of a debate(and I good one at that)
TWPR :arrow: ROTW

[Skeln]

Hmm...well to stop being physicaslly human is when you become all machine with a human mind. Howevcer, I go on the spiritual level of humanity and say that you stop being a human when you stop acting and thinking like one.

Even someone who is phycically human might not be a human mentally. If you enjoy killing little babies and murdering and you think all this crazy stuff like you're doing it for the benefit of society...that's when you stop being human. A human is one who cres for other humans, strives to be better than what they really are. Also, a human is one who is caring and can be gentle and actually feels fear, pity, and all of those negative emotions. It's what makes humans humans.

[INFERNO]

Hey guys!

Today I remembered a conversation I had with a friend a while ago on the topic of people's bodies. Specifically, what defines a person, and should a brain transplant be called a Full-body transplant?

This probably sounds stupid, so I'll try to explain it better. The question is - can you ever amputate "yourself"? If you had your legs, arms, bones and organs replaced by machines would you still be a person?
At what point do you cease to exist as a human?

Lol, that's a lot harder to type than it was to discuss, but I thought some of you might be interested in this.

I'll answer the easier question first. Can you amputate yourself? Yes, there's a disorder called body integrity identity disorder (BIID), whereby someone intentionally makes themselves an amputee because it makes them psychologically happier. You also have apotemnophilia, which is sexual interest specifically for amputees. BIID could in some respects also involve body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), which is where someone truly hates how they look (usually certain areas of their bodies), may damage it to make it look better in their perception, believe everyone else is beautiful but they're hideous and absolutely love plastic surgery.

I do believe that if you have artifical or prosthetic limbs, you'd still be a person. It makes no sense to me that from an evolutionary perspective, we are animals and consider give ourselves a generic name of "people", yet if someone looks different, they're suddenly out of the loop, so to speak. I'd consider them a person, probably someone with either a genetic disorder, or someone who had some accidents or both, but a person nonetheless.

A brain transplant should be called a brain transplant. If you have, say, you heart transplant, it's not called a cardiovascular transplant, it's called a heart transplant.

[Callwaiting]

Sklen - I'm surprised I hadn't actually thought of it like that! I was only considering the physical aspects of it, but you might have gotten it better than I did.. hmm.

Inferno no offence intended but I don't think you got where I was coming from - A brain transplant could be considered a full-body transplant because your brain is arguably what makes you, the rest of your body can be replaced without removing conciousness.

btw on a random topic did you know the quote in your signature is a slightly altered version of the famous line "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" from the book Animal Farm? :P

[INFERNO]

Inferno no offence intended but I don't think you got where I was coming from - A brain transplant could be considered a full-body transplant because your brain is arguably what makes you, the rest of your body can be replaced without removing conciousness.

btw on a random topic did you know the quote in your signature is a slightly altered version of the famous line "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others" from the book Animal Farm? :P

No, I do think I understood what you were getting at. I still find it silly to call it a full-body transplant, as doing so implies you get your entire body transplanted. I'm well aware the brain controls the body, hence one of the reasons I'm studying for neuroscience and neurology.

As for the issue of removing consciousness, that's debatable depending on your definition of consciousness. If it includes having awareness of oneself and where oneself is in space, then consciousness would be partially removed.

Hmm, I wasn't aware of that exact quote from Animal Farm but it does seem to fit.

[Skeln]

Well, as I said before if you go on the spiritual level then a brain transplant still makes you human as long as it's a human brain, but sort of like a different human because we all think differewntly and we are all different in intelligence capability. So, unless it's a robotic brain or an animal brain which causes you to think entirely different from a human brain, then you're still human...just a different human on the inside.