Will reanimation ever be possible?

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Science seems to be advancing in leaps and bounds, and more advanced technology is being developed every day. But will it ever be possible to use science to reanimate a corpse? After all, death is just the body's systems ceasing to function, so logically, if you could repair the damage done, all you'd need is a method of starting it up again, wouldn't you? I don't really know if it's possible, but it's an interesting philiosophical topic as well. If you can reanimate the dead, does that mean you should?

now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to reading Herbert West: Reanimator.

 

It's very difficult to predict these things but I doubt that corpses that have been dead for more than a few minutes can ever be properly revived. However it might become possible to bring back from the dead those who have died just recently in hospital conditions.

 

I agree with Morgoroth. Especially for something like death due to a disease. If you die because of a disease, even if it is possible to go in after the fact and remove all the viruses/bacteria/whatever that caused the disease, it's not like you can then just reanimate the corpse and it will start working again.

That's also why I think it is strange that some wealthy people have thier bodies cryogenicly frozen upon death, in the hopes that eventually a cure for their ailment will be found. I don't understand the logic in that.

Say someone dies of AIDS, and wants their body frozen in the hopes that one day there will be a cure. Even if a minute after thier death - before they were even frozen - a scientist bursts forth from his lab and exclaims "Eureka a cure for AIDS" it wouldn't do the guy that died a minute before any good, as he would already be dead.

 

Other parts might still work if the 'raise dead' technology is ever invented, but when the brain has stopped working, there isn't really anything you can do to make it work again, humans aren't machines.

 

Ageing is caused by mutations in cell division, so I would think it would be more practical to develop something that minimises these mutations resulting in a much extended or even immortal life expectancy. There have already been cases of people being 'revived' after death although only shortly after the heart stopped. I can't imagine any kind of revival being possible after the bodies metabolic functions have ceased. There was an instance in which a woman was revived several hours after death. She had drowned in freezing cold water, the temperature had slowed down her metabolism and as a result her body could continue to function without the heart for a longer period of time than normal. When she was found doctors managed to restart her heart and she was okay.

 

Well, for it to be even remotely possible, even in distant future, if we're talking about something that has been dead for about a few weeks, the whole body would have to be reconstructed. And what do you do if (and when) the brains have been decayed? Unless you can somehow remake memories, the person won't be the same, even if he could be reanimated.
But even with that, you would have to inject new blood in beforehand so that the body won't just die immidiately following the reanimation. And, well, there would be all kinds of troubles.

So, even if it would possible, it would be a pain in the arse to reanimate someone who has been dead for some time. And I seriously doubt it will be possible.

 

We would have to have a better understanding of how memories are stored before we even think of reanimationg someone.

 

Living tissue is too fragile to be reanimated. Maybe a better approach would be to divise a way to transfer the consciousness which defines each of us to another medium.

I don't think we should reanimate corpses anyway, nature dictates cessation for all living organisms and I trust nature's 'judgement' more than mankind's.

 

Nunsbane has a point. I think that transferring the conciousness into a new body, or even to a new form, would probably be better than the alternative, not only because it'd probably be more plausible, but also because those who die, especially those that die of old age, would likely not appreciate being brought back in a barely-hospitable body after the release of death. That's not to say I think that the escape of death is ethical; sometimes death can be a necessary escape.

 

Just four minutes without oxygen and the brain begins to die. Sure, reanimation to a certain extent might very well be possible. As long as the person hasn't been dead long enough for the muscles in their heart, lungs and other organs to start dying, then I am sure it will (and perhaps is) possible to get them to start again and keep them running. But the brain? I think that will always remain out of our grasps. Once something is broken, it can't be remade - atleast not the same as it originally was.

 

Actually the term is Ressurection, and that will happen, but it will be God that does it.

I don't think that Science will ever make that leap. I just think that every answer will lead to many more questions...

 

I reckon you will be able to download your brain into a computer (or even an android), given that is probably just a load of electrical and chemical connections that could be digitised. Having done that, it may be possible to use nanobots or something to go through and reconstruct damaged tissue until you have a healthy body again and then upload your digitised brain back in again. Easy!

/me goes off to apply for patent now. I'll be rich!

 

I think there needs to be a definite distinction drawn between reanimation and resurrection. To me, resurrection involves the soul. Reanimation would be the restoration of life to someone very clearly dead for more than a few minutes in normal room temperature, air pressure, etc. In this case, I would define death as a lack of brain activity as opposed to a lack of circulation (no heartbeat or breathing).

The woman in cold water survived longer (I would guess) because the oxygen was more soluble in blood. Therefore, there was little brain damage and she was perfectly fine. In this case, she never died, because her brain activity never ceased, so that was never reanimation.

So the key to reanimation in the case of an unnatural death, I believe, would be the prevention of neuronal cell death through a continuous oxygen supply or the reformation of synaptic connections. All organs but the brain have the potential to be created through stem cells. The problem with the brain is that the connections between neurons are important along with the brain tissue itself, so preserving synaptic connections is the largest hump in solving the reanimation problem. Both of the above techniques for this preservation are theoretically possible, but at this point in time and probably for the next century this process would be far too expensive in terms of research time and money to ever attempt.

In the far more complex case of aging, the telemores have simply been used up and the cells are no longer at full quality. In this case... I have absolutely no idea how to "reanimate" someone without recreating the entire body, synaptic connections and all. I mention telomeres, the repetitive code at the end of DNA strands, because it is my personal belief that aging is due to the decay of telomeres as cells divide.

Resurrection has religious undertones, namely that it implies the presence of a soul, which cannot be preserved by any human method. Personally, I think resurrection has only happened once, but that is just my religion talking.

I should also say that a full-fledged neurologist will recognize the errors in what I'm saying. Basically, I don't know precisely what I'm talking about, but as far as I grasp the scientific concepts and current theories involved, this is my opinion.

 

Re-animating is possible even now!!!! Didn`t any of you watch a movie called Re-Animator??? It ended badly it did, people turned into really gross zombies. One shouldn`t play around with stuff like that.

 

I've read the book, yeah. The main problem in it was that the reanimation process didn't restore lost brain cells, so anyone who was brought back would either be insane or a mindless, drooling wreck due to brain damage.

 

Possibly, I'm not willing to rule it out however most medical practices has shown that death is a major problem.

I'd say that it will eventually be possible to make a body start functioning again but the person would not be the same unless they're able to repair the brain tissue/cells/neural network etc. also. The other problem is that if the brain doesn't work then there is nothing to tell the heart to beat, the lungs to take in air, the stomach to digest, the liver to clean toxins or the kidneys to purify liquids etc. Every muscle in the body requires instructions in order to operate and if the brain has been damaged it's quite possible you'll have a perfectly working heart, stomach, kidneys but the lungs won't work and if that's the case the patient will require a respirator for the rest of their second life.

 

If the grass is less brown on the other side I could see this happening...

"Ughh where am I?"

"You're back on Earth, we reanimated you." [a doctor]

"What?!"

"We brought you back to life."

"Isn't that some kind of violation of my rights."

"Our laws don't protect the right of death."

"In that case, could you contact my family doctor?"

"Yes, sure give me a name."

"Kevorkian."

[ December 09, 2006, 22:13: Message edited by: ChickenIsGood ]

 

im glad someone said this, yes it is indeed possible now, to an extent (i know someone will ask for a source but i cant be bothered to scour the net for one).

using an electrical current it is possible to manipulate the nervous system, in much the same way a tazer can temporaroly paralize the nervous system rendering someone inanimate, it has been used likewise to cause activity within a dead limb, or causing muscle spasms within a human corpse, with more research i believe this method could be used to fully animate a dead body, though i couldnt imagine why anyone would want to, youd have to carry around something like a cattle prod to get it to move around.

 

I was waiting for someone to make a Kevorkian joke...