How could that be beneficial dublinlad? It is one thing to perform a transplant, quite another to transplant head of a dog onto another. Perhaps he was trying to advance his own ego rather than medicine.
This is a perfect example of just because we can do something doesnt automatically mean we should.

Dublinlad is right, it is cruel but the actions of these “scientists” working at the the concentration camps in Russia China and Germany have resulted in saving millions of lives.

@Irene,

I’m not saying he was right, I’m saying that he obviously had his own reasons, one of them could have been his ego, or that he wanted to bread a new set of super two headed soldier dogs.

Something odd.

I wonder something odd, how relevant the two headed dog experiment was in saving the millions of lives you speak of. Remember we are not talking about experiments on organ transplant here the article is about transplanting the upper body of a dog onto another. As a trained biochemist I am well aware of how experiments on animals have advanced science and medicine. I am also aware of unecessary suffering that was inflicted on animals because of unecessary experiments.
Thankfully nowadays there are much tighter restrictions on animal use. Like I have said before, just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should.

Sometimes two heads are better than one.

The idea behind things like this and the head transplants that were done with monkeys was to be able eventually to do this with humans. The aim was to help paraplegics especially whose bodies had started to shut down by transplanting their heads onto new bodies.

Interesting concept dave transplant the upper body of a person onto another person ( who would have to be live). Do you have a viable citation?

Something odd, while millions were murdered? Are you serious?

@dave clougher. It would seem you are right. Such experiments including Demikhov’s foundling work ie “2 headed dogs” ( i think he produced 19 or so of them) and later Robert White’s 2 headed monkey came under fire from non medical and medical fields alike questioning their validity/ surgical application not to mention animal cruelty. Nowadays It has been proposed that head transplants may be beneficial for quadriplegics or terminally ill patients undergoing organ failure ( effectively a body would still be rendered quadriplegic because as yet there is no way to mend severed spinal cord). There are huge ethical issues with head transplants though for animals and humans not to mention medical complexities.

Looks like there was method to Demikhov’s supposed “madness” other than ego or doing it because he could. Have to say though, in all honesty, I’m still horrified by it. who knows though, one day head transplants in humans may be as normalised as heart/ lung/ other organ transplant.

The citations I found on topic are ( asked for it earlier)

The citations I found to back up your statement are ^ “The Future of Brain Transplants”. NOVA. Retrieved 2012-05-11.
^ Krauthammer, Charles (January 19 1998). “Of Headless Mice…And Men”. Time. Discusses headless cloned humans

Tex Heart Inst J. 2009; 36(5): 453–458.
PMCID: PMC2763473
At the Cutting Edge of the Impossible- A Tribute to Vladimir P. Demikhov Igor E. Konstantinov, MD, PhD

Kieran- take your point, but your statement that this experiment ( ie transplanting the head of a dog onto another) was necessary to learn about the circulatory system …..increasing our understanding of organ acceptance and rejection is questionable.
Necessary? Really? Do you not think there was plenty other more relevant experiments on organ transplant being done before/ during/ since that time to provide necessary ( and more valid) information regarding circulation and organ rejection issues rather than resorting to transplanting the head of one animal to another?

Glad to see that there is much tighter regulation on the use of animals in medicine nowadays.

Irene, I think you are naive to believe that this does not continue to happen. There are developed countries that unashamedly flout the Geneva convention. one can only imagine what animal research experiments continue to take place.

Shanners. I said I was glad there is much tighter regulation in animal use. There is as a whole. I appreciate that some countries are better at this than others. The uk for instance is very strict. There is unfortunately still unecessary experimentation and testing that still goes on eg testing of cosmetics and worse besides.
An article such as this is bound to throw up polarised views. Some people who think its okay to subject animals to any kind of experiment in the name of ‘ advancing science’ others thinking its wrong to use animals in biomedicine full stop. For the former, no its not okay to subject animals to any kind of experiment ‘just because we can’. for the latter, removing animals from biomedical research, though animal use is much reduced to what it was, is not possible at present. Its easy to abstractly frown upon the use of animals in biomedicine but tell that to the person waiting for the lung transplant or who has been diagnosed with cancer and requires radio/ chemotherapy ( which has been experimented on with animals).
The important thing is to ensure proper regulation such that unecessary experiments such as the barbaric one shown in the article do not happen.

Well then you need to get a thesaurus!

There would have been some point to it.can’t see it

At the risk of invoking Godwins, somebody did. Josef Mengele.

Very true.he tortured children injecting them with air, other people blood and removed organs while they were awake to document how long they lived for. Mostly on young jewish children.

Thing is his experiments found way into medical research after the war

Same with unit 731. The americans left off those japanese doctorsin return for research papers. If you want sleepless night look up unit 731 they made germans look sweet and kind

None were willing volunteers just like these dogs.

Key word: willing

It maybe cruel, but without it we wouldn’t be where we are today with medical science.

I’d rather take the hit on our medical progress than have subjected countless animals and humans to extreme torture just so some fat shite can get a heart transplant at 55.

Ye, peados. Can start with the CC.

yeah medical science has a dark history. the thing is millions have been saved with this research but its not worth it. we would still get there just slower and more morally right.

@the mule, two dogs or your fathers life?

That is wuff!

I saw a two headed dog yesterday – it also had six legs, a double body and a very waggy tail. It must have been tired though as both heads were panting with their tongues hanging out…

Two faced bitch..

Boom

I try…

You are not an animal lover if you would willingly swap the lives and suffering of hundreds of animals for your own health. What a selfish hypocrite you are.

I would sacrifice my own life to save someone I loved and I would certainly not hesitate to sacrifice an animals. As for the rest of your comment its a little ptesumtious of you to judge me when you have never met me. If you place the value of an animals life above or equal to that of a human then I think you need to review your own morality.

We’re not talking about direct sacrifices here. We’re talking about utterly insane levels of cruetly and torture against huge numbers of confused and defenceless animals that suffer exactly as we would suffer. And for what? So that some selfish rich boomers can try and live forever and replace the knackered parts of their bodies which they’ve spent their whole lives abusing.

Bit of a distorted view of transplant patients there. Plenty of children and healthy-living people who need and deserve a second chance.

Aw ya but its FG’s fault that the owner of the dog cant afford to feed one of its mouths let alone two. labour should be ashamed. Shell to sea. Blah blah blah blah

Classic journal.
They post some online curiosity which featured on reddit a few months back and then the comments start coming in from grandparents who have recently “gone online” relating everything to some political situation that does not affect them because (a) they are the only group that has been insulated from financial hardship (b) they will be dead soon enough so it doesn’t matter.

Officially the experiment was called FF & FG. What was funny is how many people kept petting the freak thinking this time it won’t bite me. But alas it did everytime