The Midnight Archive - A. Head B. Body

Episode 05 - Special Presentation - A. Head B. Body - Dir. Jim Fields -- This week we have a very special film presentation. Directed by my good friend Jim Fields (End of the Century, Time Online) - The film is about the late Dr. White, a neurosurgeon... who did a head transplant. Yes. Took the head of an ape, cut it off, and stitched it onto the body of another ape. Successfully. And its all here... All the gory details. The film was actually produced a few years back. But due to the extreme nature of some of the visuals (though i am not sure what the big deal is) it didn't get much exposure at first. But the brave have certainly made it something of a docu-cult classic. We are honored to be able to have it as a special entry in the Midnight Archive. Jim can be found twiddling his thumbs at the Time Magazine offices weekly and drinking heavily after hours. For more on his work visit jimfields.tv - oh and I did some of the music in the piece... so little talent... so much time... wait a minute - scratch that... reverse!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• disturbing
• head transplant
• neuroscience
• strange
• midnight arcvhive
• morbid anatomy
• sick
• twisted
• film
• jim fields

[SteevDragon67]

I'm repelled and fascinated at the same time. I think the monkey head died within a few days or weeks. The big problem there was the head on the new body was essentially a paraplegic... that is paralized from the the neck down. Now if he could have figured out how to attach the spinal chord (which might be done today with stem cell research) and eliminate rejection, then you might have something! It is fascinating to learn that someone did this before I was born.

[2002viewaskew]

How'd I get from Boyz N The Hood to here???

[EedDeryi]

@neurocrater The kind of person who believes that their research will help save lives one day. It's nasty but that's life unfortunatly

[CDClock]

this is fucked

[scrappinmom4many2]

@stevv. He is a quad he can't use any of his limbs or neck down, para is legs or lower chest but giving him use of his arms.

[tamiyak]

The two headed dog died shortly after too.

[neurocrater]

i respect and admire this pioneering, courageous and bold work and am thankful for the advances it has given us. i just wonder sometimes what kind of person it takes to be able to suspend one's empathy and retain an objective distance while coolly watching and callously probing a horrifically suffering animal.

[b0tterman]

Dude, this IS real. And lot's of people thought he was a prick at the time. But the NIH asked him to do this. He took the heat for it. Also that was a time when huge advances in medicine were all made possible through animal experimentation. Organ transplant techniques and brain trauma too...all came from experiments almost exactly like this one.

[PtolemyJones]

If I thought this was real, I'd think that guy was a real prick.