# Medical experts wanted! Decapitation and brain death. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 25, 2002, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-experts-wanted-decapitation-and-brain-death/125433 "2002-08-25T01:03:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-experts-wanted-decapitation-and-brain-death/125433/1 "2002-08-25T01:03:42Z")
Well, we’re talking about [Cecil’s first try at it in his book](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_221a.html) Then he wrote[Cecil’s updated column(1998)](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_262.html) , wherein he allowed as how some VietNam Vet’s story caused him to “…repent my previous skepticism.” There have been follow-up colums from us dopers such as [Karen Lingel’s doubts](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=242&highlight=decapitation) and [,Eve’s and samclem’s sketicism](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=23462&highlight=decapitation) ,followed by [JoltSucker’s good suggestions](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=30014&highlight=decapitation). And just this week, [THIS THREAD](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=131566&highlight=decapitation) was posted to **GQ** trying to find an answer. What I would love is for some medical/expert type to comment, with or without cites from the literature. Could you answer the following? l. If the head were severed, could it actually have conscious eye movements 10 seconds later? That would be my time frame on the anechdotal story told by the Viet Nam Vet. I don’t doubt the Vet remembered it that way, but I doubt that it happened that way. 1. We beheaded chickens in our back yard in the 1950’s. Of course, as a kid at the time, I was watching that body run around the back yard. Unbelievable to me. Did I think to watch the head? Nooooo! I wonder if I had, would I have seen the chickens eyes looking back at me, then look down for his lost body? Not likely. But, why could his body run around for 10 seconds or more and his head not be conscious? The shock to the brain causes it to shut down? Blood loss would have to be very quick. 2. Any literature cites on anything like this? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2002, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/medical-experts-wanted-decapitation-and-brain-death/125433/2 "2002-08-25T02:27:54Z")
Ergh. Does this help? [http://www.metropulse.com/dir\_zine/dir\_2001/1117/t\_notw.html](http://www.metropulse.com/dir_zine/dir_2001/1117/t_notw.html) > [@](#): > > Case Western Reserve (Cleveland, Ohio) medical school professor Robert White, interviewed on a British TV program in April, said his monkey-to-monkey head transplant was a partial success (in that the patient lived for a while) and that, with improvements, the procedure could one day be used on humans. However, a critic, Dr. Stephen Rose, disputed that the recipient monkey was functional, contending that the brain’s only connection to the body it was serving was a shared blood supply: “All you’re doing is keeping a severed head alive.” BBC interview here. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1263758.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1263758.stm) Also, a discussion of headless chickens. [http://keithlynch.net/cryonet/56/82.html](http://keithlynch.net/cryonet/56/82.html) > [@](#): > > As my previous post (5676) pointed out, it is well established in cats > that the wiring and core algorithms for walking are contained in the distal > spinal cord (below the level of the diagphram). Evidence points to the > same thing in human neonates, and certainly in chickens and other > decapitated birds. Ya know, I usually love the Internet, but… 😃