# Could medical science keep a decapitated head alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189 "2007-07-17T22:07:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/21 "2007-07-18T13:38:02Z")
Since your entire body is a vessel to keep your brain alive, I think our technology might be a wee bit lacking to keep it alive for very long. I would also think if you did get the head animated (as much so as a head can be), the pain would be excruciating. So now we have some poor guy who can only see whatever is straight ahead, and in horrible pain. I wouldn’t want to volunteer. Although, this would be a great experiment for convicted pedophiles. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/22 "2007-07-18T14:37:04Z")
I seem to dimly recall a few photographs of a dog’s head grafted onto another dog’s body; a two headed dog, if you will. IIRC, the grafted head was capable of drinking water, but I’m not sure. I think these photographs were in Life or Time or some such magazine. Maybe I dreamed the whole damn thing. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/23 "2007-07-18T15:03:38Z")
[QUOTE=LouisB] I seem to dimly recall a few photographs of a dog’s head grafted onto another dog’s body; a two headed dog, if you will. IIRC, the grafted head was capable of drinking water, but I’m not sure. I think these photographs were in Life or Time or some such magazine. Maybe I dreamed the whole damn thing. [/QUOTE] [Here is a page with some collected links](http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/02/a_brief_history.html), including video of the dogs. You have been warned. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/24 "2007-07-18T17:00:22Z")
[QUOTE=Spit] [Here is a page with some collected links](http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/02/a_brief_history.html), including video of the dogs. You have been warned. [/QUOTE] Footage of the dog torso experiment can also be seen in the Julie Christie-narrated animals rights agitprop documentary [The Animals Film.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082020/)This movie used to play all the time on my local public access channel about ten years ago. I’ve also seen it in a video store or two. It’s one of the most unsettling things I’ve ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/25 "2007-07-18T17:35:00Z")
[QUOTE=Chief Pedant] This is not possible, so they must have been talking about a complete separation of a couple of vertebrae, or else the first vertebra with the skull–not a separation of the soft tissues… [/QUOTE] An ‘internal decapitation’ is a type of cervical spinal fracture where there is no orthopedic tissue connecting the two sides of the fracture. The soft tissues are more or less intact. I never want to have to deal with one in my future days as an EMT. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/26 "2007-07-18T17:43:59Z")
We can (imperfectly and temporarily) use technology to do what the heart, lungs and kidneys do, but when it comes to the liver, I think we’re screwed. Even so, I’m using the idea in a dark comedy (in which, through the miracle of the Internet, somebody who’s always wanted to pare a human being down to a disembodied brain meets somebody – well, some_one_ – who’s always wanted to be a disembodied brain). ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/27 "2007-07-18T18:10:46Z")
[QUOTE=alterego] [That patent](http://www.google.com/patents?id=DxktAAAAEBAJ&dq=patent:4666425&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=1&as_miny_ap=2007&as_maxm_ap=1&as_maxy_ap=2007&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2007&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=2007) is the first thing I thought of too… [/QUOTE] It would, of course, be me to point out that patent is assigned to the Dis Corporation. SLK ---
**Author:** ![Emotionally\_Unavailable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d9b06d/32.png) [@Emotionally\_Unavailable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emotionally_Unavailable)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/28 "2007-07-18T19:13:42Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] _"Bodies_ are decapitated; heads are _disembodied_." –_Spy_ magazine, ca. 1993, in reply to a letter complaining about the unannounced appearance in its pages of a “decapitated head”. I’m sorry, I don’t have an answer to your question, other than that I suspect medical science could _not_ keep a head minus its body alive. [/QUOTE] sorry to be nitpickish, a body is decapitated, a head is severed. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/29 "2007-07-18T19:49:09Z")
Can you move your face with a severed spinal cord? What movement and sensation is actually controlled through the spinal cord? ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/30 "2007-07-18T22:48:31Z")
[QUOTE=groman] Can you move your face with a severed spinal cord? [/QUOTE] Since the facial nerve doesn’t go through the spinal cord, I’d say yes, you could. Thanks to everyone for this discussion. It appears that medical science isn’t quite up to the task yet, but maybe one day. I’ll keep the guillotine handy and await progress. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/31 "2007-07-18T22:53:24Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny Hildo] There’s a book called [If We Can Keep a Severed Head Alive…Discorporation and U.S. Patent 4,666,425](http://www.amazon.com/Keep-Severed-Head-Alive-Discorporation-Patent/dp/0942287029) which was written by a man who obtained a patent on a device which would theoretically do so. He never followed up on it. [/QUOTE] I don’t trust any patent number that contains 666. ---
**Author:** ![WF\_Tomba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d9b06d/32.png) [@WF\_Tomba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WF_Tomba)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/32 "2007-07-19T14:47:08Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Even so, I’m using the idea in a dark comedy (in which, through the miracle of the Internet, somebody who’s always wanted to pare a human being down to a disembodied brain meets somebody – well, some_one_ – who’s always wanted to be a disembodied brain). [/QUOTE] There’s a Roald Dahl short story that you really should read–I forget what it’s called, but it’s in the anthology _Tales of the Unexpected_. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/33 "2007-07-19T15:55:50Z")
[QUOTE=Spit] [Here is a page with some collected links](http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/02/a_brief_history.html), including video of the dogs. You have been warned. [/QUOTE] Seems like it wasn’t just the head but two forelegs as well (just for good measure one imagines) :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/34 "2007-07-19T18:25:30Z")
[QUOTE=Pushkin] Seems like it wasn’t just the head but two forelegs as well (just for good measure one imagines) :dubious: [/QUOTE] I ran across a pic yesterday of just a puppy head coming from the side of a grown dog’s neck. They even had before and after shots of the puppy running around when he had a body. I’ll try to check my history and see if I can find it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189.md?page=1)