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| Dr. White in the 1970s. |
CHILLED MONKEY BRAINS
Head Transplants Made Easy
INTERVIEW BY DAVID FEINBERG
Dr. Robert J. White performed his first neurosurgery at age 15—on a frog cadaver in high school bio class. Over the next 50 years, he operated on more than 10,000 brains, one of which accounted for the most ambitious neurological experiment in history: In the 70s, he successfully transplanted the head of one monkey to the body of another. For White’s efforts, the monkey awoke from the anesthesia and tried to bite his finger off.
Nevertheless, his long career in neuroscience has helped save countless human lives, even if he’s killed lots of dogs and monkeys along the way. The animal rights movement really hates him, but he’s not the mad scientist they make him out to be—he’s a good Catholic who’s served as an adviser on medical ethics to the last four popes.
There is tons more with Dr. White this month on Motherboard on VBS.TV.
See all articles by this contributor
| sketchballer, on Nov 11, 2009 wrote:
monkey brains remind me of the faces of death where they crack a skull and gobble on some brain tendrils. | | Anonymous, on Nov 9, 2009 wrote:
Monkeys! Monkeys! Monkeys! I’ll have one chilled money brain, please! | | Anonymous, on Nov 7, 2009 wrote:
"what does seperate us from monkeys? intelligence? then we should be able to do this to retards too without anyone raising an eyebrow." Yea. Let’s start with Republicans and anyone who stills believes in a god. | | Anonymous, on Aug 4, 2009 wrote:
Animals would eat us and never think about us again if they could. Animal cruelty is another thing altogether. Animal testing, when done correctly, is fine and dandy. | | Anonymous, on Aug 4, 2009 wrote:
animal rights is bullshit. i do not support animal cruelty, however medical research has done us more good than harm (not necessarily with regards to pharmaceuticals since that is a shady and entirely too complex subject to weigh out pros and cons). | | Anonymous, on May 7, 2009 wrote:
He looks like a well-dressed, monkey-head-holding, and sober Harry Caray. | | Anonymous, on Apr 28, 2009 wrote:
give me a break man. you want to test this on humans? step right up. i’ll bring the scalpels. | | Anonymous, on Apr 25, 2009 wrote:
well. considering we have almost (what is it? like 99,98%?) the exact dna of one of those monkeys this still doesn’t bother anyone further than "gross, blood"? (pansies)
what does seperate us from monkeys? intelligence? then we should be able to do this to retards too without anyone raising an eyebrow. | | Anonymous, on Apr 20, 2009 wrote:
@ahhhbb
appears so! | |
| zerotransfat, on Apr 20, 2009 wrote:
the illustration with the isolated brain connected to the monkey would make a great album cover | | Anonymous, on Apr 20, 2009 wrote:
animal rights people should really fucking chill. i mean, ok, we need people to care about animals but then shit, we also need people to research and develop on the betterment of human beings. give the guy a fucking break. | | Anonymous, on Apr 20, 2009 wrote:
all of this electric equipment around ice water... sounds like fried monkey brains about to happen | |
| aahhhhB, on Apr 20, 2009 wrote:
what about the spinal cord? to they completely break it at the incision? how does that work? | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
that shit looks like a monkey bloody mary. get some horseradish and vodka in there and i’d drink it. | | Anonymous, on Apr 17, 2009 wrote:
from the pictures i have realized something. these monkeys are chinese. | | Anonymous, on Apr 16, 2009 wrote:
so you can do a head transplant but you are paralyzed and you only live a little longer? it’s amazing but i think i’d rather go down in a blaze of glory. | | Anonymous, on Apr 16, 2009 wrote:
the monkey has a big ol’ uni-nutsack. they should have strapped it down as well. | | Anonymous, on Apr 16, 2009 wrote:
monkey head transplant’s 1970 album was great, I was disappointed when they split. | |
| A Taipan, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
I’m thankful for this guy. Ethics are holding me back from immortality. | |
| duck duck goose, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
heh. you are also using someone else’s dick, so you should probably rethink your theory. | |
| skidmarx, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
this is like an extreme version of sitting on your hand until it falls asleep to masturbate. instead, you use someone else’s hand. | | Anonymous, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
freaky thinking about having a body transplanted on you that wasn’t yours. the only time I ever felt a sensation like that was when i was tripping, and that was scary enough | | Anonymous, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
I wonder how they assertained that the brain was "alert"? Realizing that the receptors (eyes and ears) are not connected to the brain no means of gathering and providing stimulation to brain exist. | | Anonymous, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
this guy is brilliant. it seems so simple to just reduce the temperature of the brain, but still he was the only guy clever enough to come up with it.
| | Anonymous, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
ewww. why is the blood so thick? it looks like tomato soup. gross gross gross. | |
| boggle_brains, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
the whole "ethical dilemma" surrounding this is so ridiculous. they are being used in order to save lives. so if you are against the use of animals than you are basically saying you value an animal’s life over the many potential human lives that could be saved
| | Anonymous, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
Awesome. I saw the VBS stuff on this dude. He’s a crazy crazy man but so chill it verges on off-putting. | |
| tammy faye, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
i wish science textbooks were this awesome when i was growing up. i wouldn’t have been reading choose your own adventure books under my desk. | | Anonymous, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
If animal rights people are faithful to their own beliefs, they really should refuse ALOT of treatments, since so many of them comes form animal testing. | | Anonymous, on Apr 15, 2009 wrote:
he would be catholic | | | Next 30 comments > |
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