# Has Anyone Reported This? (Personality With Transplanted Body Parts)? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 25, 2013, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277 "2013-01-25T00:54:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/1 "2013-01-25T00:54:14Z")
There was an odd little story I read, years ago-it went like this: a man was saved from death, via a heart/lung/liver transplant. The donor was killed in an auto accident; months later, the recipient reported that he had different interests and behaviors than before…one strange thing was that the recipient started smoking cigarettes-something that he had never done. All of this suggested that some aspect of the donor’s personality came with the organs. this is logically absurd-we know that the brain contains personality-the other organs are only of physical importance. Has anyone heard of such a story? ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/2 "2013-01-25T03:52:28Z")
[Oh, totally!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101492/) What happened post-transplant was horrifying! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/3 "2013-01-25T04:10:10Z")
Could the personality changes be due to minor brain damage from the long length of time spent under anesthesia? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/4 "2013-01-25T04:25:47Z")
See what happens when you give a donee the lungs of a 30 year long chain-smoker! ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/5 "2013-01-25T05:03:31Z")
I think it was in Mary Roach’s book Stiff, she said some people believe personality is held in the heart and not the brain. Someone who had a heart transplant believed the donor died in a car accident with the taste of french fries in their mouth. It was found to be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/6 "2013-01-25T05:48:33Z")
What -has- been found (I’m pretty sure… Sadly, I can’t find the damn cite for it…) Is that experiences of great trauma (say, needing sudden major organ transplant) can re-wire behavior centers in the brain. The most apparent showing of this is people with PTSD picking up or losing habits or emotional attachments they’ve had all their lives. It’s probably the fact that the transplant is needed; not the actual transplanted part. ---
**Author:** ![PandaBear77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@PandaBear77](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PandaBear77)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/7 "2013-01-25T06:14:58Z")
I’ve heard of stuff like this; whether or not it’s true remains to be seen. I knew a lady once who had had more than 1 kidney transplant; I asked her if she ever noticed anything different after getting a new organ, she said no. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/8 "2013-01-25T06:15:31Z")
> [@Kaio](#): > > [Oh, totally!](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101492/) What happened post-transplant was horrifying! :eek: Here’s an even better [example](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065390/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). (possibly NSFW) ---
**Author:** ![Mithras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mithras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mithras)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/9 "2013-01-25T15:43:56Z")
There’s the [Croatian lumberjack](http://www.salon.com/2006/01/18/lumberjack/) who was given a woman’s kidney. He filed a lawsuit claiming it ruined his life by making him feminine. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/10 "2013-01-25T16:04:16Z")
There was a short story with this idea “The Assemblage of Kristin” by James Morrow ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/11 "2013-01-25T16:53:39Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Here’s an even better [example](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065390/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). (possibly NSFW) That made me laugh for about 15 minutes straight. Thank you. Oh, 70s porn… ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/12 "2013-01-25T16:55:51Z")
That whole [Head of Vecna](http://www.blindpanic.com/humor/vecna.htm) thing never worked out… ---
**Author:** ![Enkel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Enkel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enkel)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/13 "2013-01-25T17:43:40Z")
Here is an article on Inherited Memory that talks about several incidents. [http://theophanes.hubpages.com/hub/Cellular-Memories-in-Organ-Transplant-Recipients](http://theophanes.hubpages.com/hub/Cellular-Memories-in-Organ-Transplant-Recipients) I found it because I remember the movie made about Claire Silvia. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-reported-this-personality-with-transplanted-body-parts/648277/14 "2013-01-25T18:02:33Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > There was an odd little story I read, years ago-it went like this: a man was saved from death, via a heart/lung/liver transplant. The donor was killed in an auto accident; months later, the recipient reported that he had different interests and behaviors than before..one strange thing was that the recipient started smoking cigarettes-something that he had never done. > All of this suggested that some aspect of the donor’s personality came with the organs. > this is logically absurd-we know that the brain contains personality-the other organs are only of physical importance. Has anyone heard of such a story? Reported.