NationStates Jolt Archive

Let's say a person is dying (such as the Pope) and hooking them up to machines can prolong their lives. Religiously, it's your duty to prolong their lives. Well, would you condone cybernetic implants (machines surgically installed into a person's body), in order to prolong their life?

I mean, if you were to be able to build a robotic body, which kept only the brain alive, should you, according to your beliefs, do that?

I have no religious beliefs, so it really doesn't matter to me. Cybernetics could help a lot of people, and if they can keep someone alive, why not? This assumes, of course, that their brain is still functional, and that you're not trying to do anything weird like trying to turn the Pope into a Borg.

As long as it was just physical injuries that these implants were fixing, then, it's a good way to prolong and enhance one's life. But, if it's used merely to prolong the life of someone who is near death's door, that's cruel and inhumane.

ie:
You're in a car accident and you lose feelings from your neck down, I see cybernetics being very useful

However!

Let's say something happens which affects your mental capacity, such as a heart attack that deprives your brain of necessary oxygen for a period of time, leaving you in a state where you are unable to live your life... It would be unfair to replace thne heart and other damaged parts. That is when you just let them go. They have become a shell, and adding cybernetic parts prolongs the life of a shell and not a human.

Well BioMecanitcal inplants can (thoratical) be used to replace stuff like spines or organs however the bigist thing about BioMech inplants is upgradeing a body, immunity to posions, larger lung capsity faster and stronger.

What would be really interesting would be if it were possible to install cybernetic implants in the brain to restore a person to full functionality, especially if the alternative is a PVS and they don't have a living will. Imagine the controversy as the debate rages: would the person wish to be kept on life support, as the family hopes for a miracle? Or should they recieve the implant, which would most likely radically alter their personality, as well as leave them with large holes in their memory?

When you tamper with life, you're taking a chance into your hands.

I'm just wondering if, in the future, the anti-choicers are going to be putting people's heads in jars, like the cartoon, Futurama.

http://ertom.com.pl/futurama/headmuseum/th_2acv03_nixon.jpg
http://ertom.com.pl/futurama/headmuseum/th_2acv03_nixon.jpg

I would like to have an implant that would increase my memory

Let's say a person is dying (such as the Pope) and hooking them up to machines can prolong their lives. Religiously, it's your duty to prolong their lives. Well, would you condone cybernetic implants (machines surgically installed into a person's body), in order to prolong their life?

My belief is that this is up to the person him/herself (assume he). If he wants to life on as a cyborg, can afford it and will not be a terminatorlike killing machine - let him. If he doesn't - let him die. Their decision.