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Personal Identity

Transplants

(Text as at 06/07/2023 00:43:12)

Plug Note¹

• Thesis Text:
  1. From the standpoint of Personal Identity, the most significant transplants are Brain Transplants². While the transplantation of cerebrums³ and larger brain⁴-parts, including WBTs⁵ will be covered elsewhere, here we should cover Thought Experiments⁶ involving smaller brain-tissue transplants, which are supposed to transfer psychological⁷ elements from one person⁸ to another and not identity as such.
  2. In the context of animalism⁹, however – where it is said (by Olson¹⁰) that the brain¹¹ is just another organ – there is less reason for Brain Transplants to receive centre-stage. Some animalists¹² resist the “Transplant Intuition” – which is that “we go where our brains go”, but I will discuss that when discussing Brain Transplants.
  3. But, the animalist must still consider whether an organism¹³ can survive¹⁴ the transplant of “lesser” organs, and which – if any – transplants it cannot survive. We certainly accept that major-organ transplants – and even a complex of organs such as heart/lungs – preserve the Human Animal¹⁵ (and person¹⁶).
  4. Are there any limits beyond which we cannot go? Do we have to allow for a case of fusion¹⁷ in extreme circumstances? Is there a “core” of the animal¹⁸ that preserves identity while peripheral organs are swapped out?
  5. What about inorganic transplants? Is the Human Animal¹⁹ preserved, and does it incorporate the transplanted organs, or are they useful appendages (like clothes) that are external to it? Alternatively, do we then have a cyborg²⁰? What about implants that affect our mentation²¹?
  6. I can’t delve far into the ethics of transplantation, but only the metaphysics thereof. That said, I’ve read, enjoyed and briefly commented on "Ishiguro (Kazuo) - Never Let Me Go".

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  Further Remarks:
  1. Unfortunately, almost all of these references in the ‘Page of Links’ below relate to the ethics of organ transplantation, wether per se, related to issues to do with “brain death”, or to “cannibalisation” arguments against consequentialism. So, precious few are itemised in the two lists below.

References

• Relevant Works cited above:
  1. "Ishiguro (Kazuo) - Never Let Me Go", 2005, Book, Read
• For a Page of Links²² to this Note, Click here.
• Works on this topic that I’ve actually read²³, include the following:-
  • Aeon:
    1. "Dworkin (Ronald W.) - Last hours of an organ donor", 2024, External Link
  • General:
    1. "Ishiguro (Kazuo) - Never Let Me Go", 2005, Book
    2. "Shoemaker (David) - Personal Identity and Immortality", 2009
    3. "Zimmerman (Dean) - Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited", 2010, Annotations, Internal PDF Link
• A further reading list might start with:-
  • General:
    1. "Bernecker (Sven) - The Nature of Memory Causation", 2010
    2. "Munzer (Stephen R.) - Transplantation, Chemical Inheritance, and the Identity of Organs", 1994, Internal PDF Link
    3. "Northoff (G.) - Do Brain Tissue Transplants Alter Personal Identity? Inadequacies of Some 'Standard' Arguments", 1996, Internal PDF Link
    4. "Snowdon (Paul) - Strengthening the Rejection of Transplant Arguments", 2014, Read = 6%

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• For a list of Works that have been considered, but have missed the cut for inclusion in this Section of my Thesis, see the following:-
  1. Read: No items to list.
  2. Further Reading: No items to list.
• This is mostly a place-holder²⁴.

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Table of the Previous 9 Versions of this Note:

Date	Length	Title
20/09/2022 11:24:00	3289	Transplants
15/05/2022 13:19:12	2908	Transplants
18/02/2021 01:01:55	2694	Transplants
30/09/2020 21:33:07	2510	Transplants
14/05/2018 21:00:00	4644	Transplants
11/03/2018 20:19:41	2777	Transplants
18/12/2010 19:58:05	1140	Transplants
26/11/2007 23:25:26	84	Transplants
12/08/2007 10:17:46	80	Transplants

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Note last updated	Reading List for this Topic	Parent Topic
06/07/2023 00:43:12	Transplants	Thought Experiments

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Summary of Notes Referenced by This Note

Animalism	Animalists	Animals	Awaiting Attention (Personal Identity)	Brain
Brain Transplants	Cerebrum	Cyborgs	Fusion	Human Animals
Note Links Explanation	Olson	Organisms	Person	Plug Note Apologia
Psychology	Siliconisation	Survival	Thought Experiments	Works Read - Explanation

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Summary of Notes Citing This Note

Androids, 2, 3	Brain	Brain Transplants, 2, 3	Change	Chimera
Counting Persons	Cyborgs, 2	Fission	Genetics	Olson - What Are We? Animals, 2
Olson - What Are We? The Question	Physicalism	PID Note, Book & Paper Usage, 2, 3	Ship of Theseus	Siliconisation
Thesis - Chapter 02 (What are We?)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)
Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10	Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion)	Thesis - Current Stance	Thesis - Personal Identity, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14
Website Generator Documentation - Functors, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

To access information, click on one of the links in the table above.

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Authors, Books & Papers Citing this Note

Author	Title	Medium	Extra Links	Read?
Baggini (Julian)	Life-and-death thought experiments are correctly unsolvable	Paper		Yes
Bernecker (Sven)	The Nature of Memory Causation	Paper
Campbell (Courtney S.)	A No-Brainer: Criticisms of Brain-Based Standards of Death	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5
Christie (Julie)	The Cruel Deception: Foreward	Paper
Corcoran (Kevin)	Rethinking Human Nature: A Christian Materialist Alternative to the Soul	Book
DeGrazia (David)	The Nature of Human Death	Paper
Dworkin (Ronald W.)	Last hours of an organ donor	Paper		Yes
Feldman (Fred)	Why Killing Is Wrong	Paper	2	Yes
Ferner (Adam)	Metaphysics and biology: a critique of David Wiggins’ account of personal identity	Paper
Forrester (Mary)	Persons, Animals, and Fetuses: Summary	Paper
Han (Byung-Chul)	The copy is the original	Paper		Yes
Harris (John)	The Survival Lottery	Paper	2
Hartl (Daniel L.)	Our Uncertain Heritage: Genetics & Human Diversity	Book
Hill (Claire Ortiz)	Rethinking Identity and Metaphysics: On the Foundations of Analytic Philosophy	Book
Hood (Bruce)	Supersense: From Superstition to Religion - The Brain Science of Belief	Book
Ishiguro (Kazuo)	Never Let Me Go	Paper		Yes
Kamm (F.M.)	Acquisition of Organs	Paper	2
Kamm (F.M.)	Distribution of Resources: Need and Outcome	Paper	2
Kamm (F.M.)	Distribution of Resources: Outcome, Waiting Time, and Money	Paper
Kamm (F.M.)	Distribution of Resources: Urgency and Outcome	Paper
Kamm (F.M.)	Morality, Mortality (Vol. 1) - Death and Whom to Save from It	Book	2
Kamm (F.M.)	Procedures for Distribution	Paper
Kamm (F.M.)	The Trolley Problem	Paper	2
Lizza (John)	Persons, Humanity, & the Definition of Death	Book
Marshall (Richard) & Fabre (Cécile)	Cecile Fabre: On the Intrinsic Value of Each of Us	Paper		Yes
Marshall (Richard) & Olson (Eric)	Eric T. Olson: The Philosopher with No Hands	Paper		Yes
Martin (Alan P.)	Human head transplant: Controversial procedure successfully carried out on corpse	Paper		Yes
McMahan (Jeff)	The Ethics of Killing: Preface	Paper
Morioka (Masahiro)	Brain Dead Person: Preface + TOC & Chapters 1, 2, 5 & 7	Paper
Morioka (Masahiro)	Reconsidering Brain Death: A Lesson From Japan's Fifteen Years of Experience	Paper
Munzer (Stephen R.)	Transplantation, Chemical Inheritance, and the Identity of Organs	Paper	2, 3, 4
Neuwelt (E.A.), Etc.	Open Peer Commentary on 'Controversies in Neuroscience II: Neural Transplantation'	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Neuwelt (E.A.), Pagel (M.A.), Geller (A.) & Muldoon (L.L.)	Gene replacement therapy in the central nervous system: Viral vector-mediated therapy of global neurodegenerative disease	Paper
Northoff (G.)	Do Brain Tissue Transplants Alter Personal Identity? Inadequacies of Some 'Standard' Arguments	Paper	2, 3, 4
Olson (Eric)	Animalism and the Remnant-Person Problem	Paper	2	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper	2	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper		Yes
Pearl (Sharrona)	Changing faces	Paper		Yes
Puccetti (Roland)	The Conquest of Death	Paper
Satz (Debra)	The Moral Limits of Markets: The Case of Human Kidneys	Paper	2
Savulescu (Julian)	Should a human-pig chimera be treated as a person?	Paper		Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity and Immortality	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Shoemaker (David)	Personal Identity, Rational Anticipation, and Self-Concern	Paper		Yes
Snowdon (Paul)	Strengthening the Rejection of Transplant Arguments	Paper
Thomas (Janice L.)	The bodily criterion	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Androids	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Brain	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Brain Transplants	Paper	2, 3	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Change	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 02 (What Are We?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 03 (What is a Person?)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 04 (Basic Metaphysical Issues)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 05 (Persistence and Time)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 06 (Animalism and Arguments for It)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 07 (The Constitution View and Arguments for It)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 10 (Thought Experiments)	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chapter 12 (Conclusion)	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Chimera	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Counting Persons	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Current Position	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Cyborgs	Paper	2	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Fission	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Genetics	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Personal Identity	Paper	2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14	Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Physicalism	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Ship of Theseus	Paper		Yes
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Siliconisation	Paper		Yes
Zimmerman (Dean)	Bodily Resurrection: The Falling Elevator Model Revisited	Paper		Yes

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References & Reading List

Author	Title	Medium	Source	Read?
Bernecker (Sven)	Memory: A Philosophical Study	Book - Cited (via Paper Cited)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	1%
Bernecker (Sven)	The Nature of Memory Causation	Paper - Cited	Bernecker (Sven) - Memory: A Philosophical Study, Chapter 5	No
Christie (Julie)	The Cruel Deception: Foreward	Paper - Referencing	Sharpe (Robert) - The Cruel Deception: The Use of Animals in Medical Research	No
Dworkin (Ronald W.)	Last hours of an organ donor	Paper - Cited	Aeon, 09 May 2024	Yes
Dworkin (Ronald W.)	Last hours of an organ donor	Paper - Referencing	Aeon, 09 May 2024	Yes
Ishiguro (Kazuo)	Never Let Me Go	Book - Cited	Ishiguro (Kazuo) - Never Let Me Go	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What are We? A Study of Personal Ontology	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? Animals	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 2 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Olson (Eric)	What Are We? The Question	Paper - Referencing	What Are We? A Study in Personal Ontology, Chapter 1 (November 2007: Oxford University Press.)	Yes
Sharpe (Robert)	The Cruel Deception: The Use of Animals in Medical Research	Book - Referencing (via Paper Referencing)	Bibliographical details to be supplied	No
Todman (Theo)	Thesis - Transplants	Paper - By Subtopic		Yes

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Text Colour Conventions

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026

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