Why can’t certain organs such as the pancreas or brain be transplanted? (what other organs cannot be transplanted?)
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Pancreas can be transplanted
The brain cannot be transplanted because the brain is you. If you take your brain & & put it in a different body then you have a new body. Put a different brain in your old body and that body is no longer you.
So most of the time a brain transplant should be referred to as a body transplant.
Would moving a brain to a new skull be possible? Isn’t every skull just a bit different shaped? I assume you can’t just jam it in there and call it a day.
It is possible to do a pancreas transplant, but it’s indicated only in people who have also a kidney failure, therefore it’s a double transplant, kidney and pancreas.
Keep in mind that when you receive a transplant of any kind you’ll have to do a immunosuppressive treatment for the rest of your life. It’s far more easy and safe to use insulin and enzymes for the rest of your life!
Brain transplant is just too complicated to do right now, too many connections.
Also you grew that brain and got used to that body during your childhood. Other bodies wired differently, nobody knows whether a brain could acclimate to the new body without serious life support.
One thing is sure, you would need to lelearn how to walk talk and do pretty much everything. there are slight differences between person to person.
You’d have to sever the spinal cord to move the brain. We don’t have the technology to reattach it without leaving the person paralyzed from the neck down.
A brain transplant doesn’t make any sense. You are you’re brain. If anything it’s a body transplant
Don’t know about other organs, but when you get down to it, the brain isn’t exactly an organ. The brain (and the nervous system) is you. All the rest is just the vehichle. [Like this!](https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-01e0a2af0d1fa2f8c30c6d6f03d97e74-lq) (maybe kinda nsfw:ish if you’re squeamish..)
Depends on the connections that have to be made. We do liver, kidney, bowel, pancreatic, lung, heart, and corneal transplants at my institution. Most of them require connecting some vessels (arteries and veins) and some other “tubes” such as in a lung or pancreatic transplant. Nerves are a whole different story and are not necessarily something we know how to surgically re-connect well.
Fun fact, if your pancreas doesn’t work, you can eat the raw pancreas of another animal to get the enzymes you need to digest your food.
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