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Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing

science.org

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Re: Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing

#91

Post by applfanboysbgon »

hilariously wrote: post #90
lukan wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"he may have never done a sexual thing but his pedophilia was quite obvious" How is it obvious pedophilia, if you say he may have never done a sexual thing to them?

because he paid families to sleep in beds and hang out with their children, this is not a normal adult man behavior, and defending it on the internet is weird.

There is a wide, wide range between "normal behaviour" and "sex offender". I'm fine with being weird, and have no qualms defending the right of other people to be weird.

Maybe he liked playing with children because adults are evil and only saw him as a moneybag to try to extricate a payday from. If he wasn't harming them, it's not my business.

Re: Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing

#92

Post by evanjrowley »

yoyohello13 wrote: post #83
dhosek wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I had my ear surgery about 20 years ago, the doctor explained to me that I would be awake for part of the procedure, but the anesthesia meant that I would have no memory of it.¹ It’s a weird thing to think about whether that lack of memory would obviate the pain or discomfort of the moment. ⸻ 1. As it turned out, I was so frightened in the lead-up to the surgery that they had to do general anesthesia on me becau…

Purely anecdotal, but I had surgery a few years ago (relatively minor). But I could feel for months after a sort of 'unconscious PSTD' I don't know how else to describe it. Even after it was healed and the pain was gone, there was just a deep sense of 'something bad happened in there' feeling. I'd have dreams of someone digging around in my body. Anyway, it's all gone now, but a weird experience for sure.

PTSD can happen especially when something goes wrong with the anesthesia. Happened to a man named Sherman Sizemore many years ago: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/family-sues-after...

Dramatized retelling of the story at 21m04s: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ny_s07D-LT8&t=1264s

Re: Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing

#93

Post by tyre »

smeggysmeg wrote: post #62
pavel_lishin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like the families have to agree to do this, before your brain can be donated: > Bexorg obtains brains in partnership with organizations that procure donated organs for transplantation, and Vrselja says once families understand the company’s process and goals, their response is overwhelmingly positive.

Until we find out otherwise. There have been multiple organ harvesting scandals lately. Informed consent has become a marketing concept, no longer a reality.

Citation required. Specifically for a western country happening at any notable scale via organ donors.

Re: Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing

#95

Post by lukan »

hilariously wrote: post #90
lukan wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"he may have never done a sexual thing but his pedophilia was quite obvious" How is it obvious pedophilia, if you say he may have never done a sexual thing to them?

because he paid families to sleep in beds and hang out with their children, this is not a normal adult man behavior, and defending it on the internet is weird.

It is not normal adult behavior and he likely should have had therapy.

But it is not necessarily pedophilia. Because that means wanting to have sex with children.

The explanation I heard is he wanted to be close to children to compensate for his own lack of innocent childhood. Children don't do sexual intercourse. Now if he was a child in his mind, then I as a parent would surely not have gave my children to his care, but this is still something very different from child molesting.

Re: Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing

#96

Post by scratchyone »

bsimpson wrote: post #82
acdbddh wrote: post #22

To be honest, if my only other option was to be buried, I would love to let my brain be connected to some machine that try to keep it as alive-like as possible. Just please don't remove my brain before I'm 1000% certainly dead.

This is precisely why I've never been interested in being an organ donor. I don't remember where specifically I learned this, but I was taught that tissue has to be alive to be useful, so they harvest it when you're almost-dead. Having my last moments be being literally dismembered is not something I wish for my future self.

They will never remove tissue if you're still alive. This is the reason organ donation is most common in brain-death cases, because the tissue is still alive but you are entirely dead. As you point out, it would be horrible to dismember someone who is still alive and would certainly violate their oath.

I hope this is a comforting answer, I choose to be an organ donor because of these details.

Re: Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing

#98

Post by Bratmon »

tyre wrote: post #93
smeggysmeg wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until we find out otherwise. There have been multiple organ harvesting scandals lately. Informed consent has become a marketing concept, no longer a reality.

Citation required. Specifically for a western country happening at any notable scale via organ donors.

Citation: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/us/kentucky-organ-donatio...

Organ harvesting of living patients hasn't fully scaled up as a practice yet, but it's definitely a major source of income for some rural hospitals.

Re: Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing

#99

Post by [deleted] »

harimau777 wrote: post #49
pavel_lishin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we know how to make living brains insensate - that's who we all make it through surgery. Presumably they're doing something similar - or using some other well-understood mechanism - to ensure that's not the case. > The brains are already almost devoid of the coordinated neural firing necessary even for minimal consciousness, says Brendan Parent, a bioethicist at New York University Langone Health and one of six…

My understanding was that we now believe that patients under anesthesia are often "awake" but the drugs prevent them from forming memories so they can't complain once the anesthesia wears off. Is that incorrect?

[deleted]

Re: Not alive, but not dead: disembodied human brains used for drug testing

#100

Post by ywain »

rendx wrote: post #80
ywain wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, I only skimmed the paper but it seems like all of the "non-local phenomena" in support of their theory are basically psychic powers. Not exactly strong evidence.

You're free to stop there. We can also turn it around, and I can ask you for any paper that details the theory of why the brain should be the location of consciousness. I only gave one example and Wikipedia to start with. There's a lot of material out there if you're (rightfully) skeptical of that one paper. I don't even know what you're refering to as "their theory", as the way I read it, they're basically documenti…

Sure. We can't even agree on a good definition for "consciousness", we certainly don't know _how_ it works. I don't think there's a lot of debate around that specific point.

I'll try and read the paper more carefully after work, but my quick read was: they posit that consciousness might not be localized in the brain because if it were, then how would people be able to perform telepathy / remote viewing / future foresight? I can't assert that their non-local hypothesis is wrong, but I can pretty confidently say that the evidence they're using to back it up is unscientific BS.

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