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By Reagan Ahlquist
The first successful human transplant was performed on a corpse in China on November 17th 2017, by Italian surgeon, Sergio Canavero. The purpose of this procedures was to find out if this surgery was even possible. After the surgery was complete, surgeons found out that connecting the spine, nerves, and blood vessels was possible, at least on a dead body. This transplant comes a year after the a team of medical professionals, led by Dr. Xiaoping Ren performed a head transplant on a live monkey, in January 2016. The monkey did survive the procedure, but was put down after 20 hours for ethical reasons.The next step in this experimental process is to do a head transplant between brain dead organ donors. The ultimate goal is to eventually perform an entire head transplant on live patients. Canavero wants to perform a transplant between a terminal patient and give them the head of a patient who is brain dead. This procedure will take place in Russia, hopefully within a year. Even though this surgery was considered a success, others doubt if this transplant will actually work on living patients. Glenelg Senior, Robbie Baxter believes that “The transplant will work because the medical world has already advanced so much in the last 100 years.” It is true that the medical world 100 years ago looks so foreign to what it is like the in the modern day. And if this transplant can done successfully then it will lead to other advancements in the medical world. Baxter also said that “If they can connect all the nerves together then they should be able to do surgeries on others parts of the bodies, like limbs, making people be able to walk again or use their arms after accidents.” Being able to give patients their limbs back, after already having them healed over, and having them work so they can have feeling in them again would be a remarkable accomplishment. It will help people who are physically disabled get back to their normal lives, before their tragic accidents. Others are wondering if this surgery is moral. The surgery requires at least one person to die in order to get their head onto the patient receiving the head transplant. Glenelg senior, Seth Taylor thinks, “The person losing their head is already technically dead, so it is like getting a donated organ making it moral.” It is true that the head is coming from a person who is considered dead, but they are still taking their head and putting in onto another person's body, which can be strange or disturbing for the families and friends. In the future these moral and ethical concerns will be addressed if these types of procedures become more common. But for now, this transplant is a breakthrough in the medical world and could potentially save lives in the near future. By Julianna Mirabile
“One small step for man, one giant step for mankind”: This widely known phrase was relevant to the millions who watched Neil Armstrong do the impossible. But did it actually happen? For over forty years, the 1972 Apollo 17 moon landing has been subjected to being a hoax, with new evidence being revealed recently. This theory is centered around the Apollo missions, saying that they were all a hoax created by NASA. It was first mentioned by Bill Kaysing, in his book, We Never Went To The Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle. In this book, Kaysing claims that faking the moon landing to the world would be much easier than actually landing on the moon. He also states that in the effort of raising money for the mission, NASA received thirty billion dollars, which could have been used to pay organizations to help with the act. Though Kaysing was the first to speak up, he certainly was not the last. Following Kaysing, thousands of people joined in to voice their opinion on television and make documentaries on their theories. So why fake the moon landing in the first place? Some theories state that NASA would do it to win the “Space Race”, the competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to be more advanced in the solar system. This race prompted several satellite launches, and could have given the United States the push to fake the moon landing. Another theory states that NASA faked it not only for the money, but because President John F. Kennedy had a goal to land a man on the moon and safely return him home. Fulfilling this goal would be huge publicity for both the President and NASA. Knowing why NASA would do this makes the evidence a bit more believable. Many photos from the mission seem to be photoshopped, with crosshairs being deformed and rotated. Along with this, it appears that artificial light was used because the shadow colors and angles are erratic. Uniform backgrounds in photos that were taken miles away from each other prove that it could have been a backdrop, and in these backgrounds there appears to be no stars. Finally, the most recent evidence was discovered by a youtuber, “Streetcap1”. It is a photo that has a reflection in the astronaut’s visor of a man “standing on the moon” without a spacesuit on. Conspiracy theorists are going crazy over this photo, saying that this proves that the moon landing was all a hoax. Glenelg High School alumni, Christian Rausch, exclaimed, “How could there possibly be such a reflection if they were actually in outer space on the moon?” Especially if Neil Armstrong was the supposedly the only astronaut who stepped foot on the moon. Glenelg High School Senior, Will Breslin, is an active believer in the moon landing being a fraud. When first seeing the picture that “Streetcap1” evaluated, Breslin said, “This picture is an amazing source of fraud. I personally believe the moon landing is humanly impossible and I have been suspicious about it for awhile. After seeing this picture, I could definitely prove NASA guilty.” Maybe ordinary people actually caught this deception, and this theory will finally turn into a reality. |
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February 2024
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