Timewaster's Guide Archive
Local Authors => Brandon Sanderson => Topic started by: XJface on October 02, 2010, 09:00:49 AM
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It seems that Hemalurgy could potentially have a significant place in medicine alongside things like blood and organ donation, in the form of voluntary hemalurgic attribute donation. One complication of this would be the fact that hemalurgy and heart donation are mutually exclusive, so the benefit a recipient would receive from transference of a some hemalurgic attribute would have to be weighed against the benefit of transplanting the heart itself. Presumably they would have to have a way of ranking the suitability of a heart for transplant versus hemalurgy while taking into account what is needed for other patients. A weak or diseased heart which cannot be transplanted could be used for just about anything hemalurgically, whereas a heart ideal for transplant could be used for hemalurgy instead if its owner is a pewter misting and there's a potential recipient whose vast injuries are certain to be fatal without the effect of pewter allomancy.
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That's an awesome concept!
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Don't you have to kill someone to make a Hemalurgic spike?
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Don't you have to kill someone to make a Hemalurgic spike?
Or harvest from a dying person, just like organ donation.
I'm guess pewter would be the only medical "transplant". Unless they gave blind people tin spikes, either to cure near blindness or to beef up the other senses.
I wonder if wills would include hemalurgic spiking. So if a misting is on their deathbed, they get spiked to let their children inherit. Or if they pass down a hemalurgic spike they were using, even if it would lose potency.
Awesome idea. ;D
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I've always seen Hemalurgy as very akin to Acupuncture, and with a kinder, gentler Sazed at the helm, perhaps its been toned down to that lvl? for example, a patient goes to a local Spiker, who used various metal-spikes and rods to poke and prod the patient, perhaps "Killing" the sickness, or disease.
i could also see it as akin to Steroids, where a person Spikes themselves to be quicker, or stronger, etc.
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Don't you have to kill someone to make a Hemalurgic spike?
Or harvest from a dying person, just like organ donation.
Organs are only taken after a person is dead. You don't actually kill them for their organs.
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Don't you have to kill someone to make a Hemalurgic spike?
Or harvest from a dying person, just like organ donation.
Organs are only taken after a person is dead. You don't actually kill them for their organs.
What he's saying is that the person is spiked when they're terminally ill. They're killed, yes, but only when there's nothing that can be done for them. True, this would probably severely reduce the potency of the spike, but it's better than how Hemalurgy has previously been conducted. It's sort of like with Breath, only more extreme.
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Don't you have to kill someone to make a Hemalurgic spike?
Or harvest from a dying person, just like organ donation.
Organs are only taken after a person is dead. You don't actually kill them for their organs.
If this idea were used, I'd imagine it would be controversial for at least some of society. In essence, it would be euthanasia.
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If this idea were used, I'd imagine it would be controversial for at least some of society. In essence, it would be euthanasia.
But a lot more painful.
Doesn't Hemalurgy do weird things to people, though?
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This sort of thing would be covered in living wills and such. "If I am rendered brain dead by injury or illness I consent to be used as a hemalurgic donor." I imagine that's the scenario where it would be most accepted.
Something else that occurred to me is some sort of multi-spike, several smaller pieces that fit together to make one large one. Perhaps that would let you spread it out across multiple recipients, though probably at reduced potency.
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If this idea were used, I'd imagine it would be controversial for at least some of society. In essence, it would be euthanasia.
But a lot more painful.
Doesn't Hemalurgy do weird things to people, though?
Well, Ruin did weird things to people. And does Hemalurgy still work without Ruin? I guess Sazed would control it now...
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*MISTBORN SPOILERS*
Ruin is still around, know held by Sazed. Ati, the person holding the shard that was making people who were spiked do bad things is no longer alive, and Brandon has already said that Sazed wont get infected by the power of Ruin as he also holds the power of Preservation.
But I really like this idea. It has some really interesting applications.
EDIT: Better place mistborn spoilers on this post.
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Don't you have to kill someone to make a Hemalurgic spike?
Or harvest from a dying person, just like organ donation.
Organs are only taken after a person is dead. You don't actually kill them for their organs.
Yes, but a person's body is kept on life support after they die in order to harvest the organs. They could leave a person on life support, then spike them.
It would probably be a very controversial subject in their society (much like organ donation can be in ours). It just might require the donor to be euthanized . The whole process just needs to be regulated and voluntary.
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The ironic would be that the process has actual historical basis for being evil.
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The ironic would be that the process has actual historical basis for being evil.
But with the whole change in leadership, evil is good!
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Since Hemalurgy requires infusing the spike with at least part of the dying person's spirit, I would imagine some semblance of life would be required in the donor for the spike to absorb. If the spike was a physical link, people on life support would be fine, but since it tears apart their spirit, I'm not sure if even a brain dead donor would work.
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We're getting to a very philosophical grey area here. If someone is a vegetable, something akin to a living corpse, or an unfinished Elantrian, does that mean they have no spirit? There is no definite scientific answer, and I think it is up to Brandon as the author to define the limits of his magic system.
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The ironic would be that the process has actual historical basis for being evil.
Indeed.
There could be a few problems beside the one you just mentioned.
Humanity was changed a lot during the ascension ( there were shorter years, a colder climate, they received the abbillity to breathe ash 24/7/, there was different light, a completely different nutrition etc.); we can't be sure that a human after being reverted back to the original version would be still be able to withstand being given a spike.
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I would assume that the power of Ruin's shard, in which they are tapping into, would give them the power to stay alive despite a spike sticking in their head. Not even the people of the Final Empire were that resilient to allow them to survive a spike in the head without shard help.