21 Grams, the DVD I watched last night is apparently the amount of body mass we loss the instant that we die. The premise of this film, which was ok, was to look at what we lose (even gain) with those 21 Grams. But that’s not really the point of my post.

One of the major themes of the film was; what exactly makes us, us? Without giving away too much of the plot, the film follows the story of a guy who, after receiving a heart transplant goes on a journey of discovery to find out who he now is. He finds himself being drawn more and more into the life of the previous owner of his new heart.

So this made me think, what does make us who we are? For many a dark year people believed that we were the sum of our parts. If you lose an arm, a leg, maybe a finger then that made us less of a person; or at least a different person. Of course we know this not to be true.

But what about the inside? People are often described as having a good heart if they are nice person. Would a transplant of the physical heart really change our personality; would it change who we are?

Possibly the biggest general suggestion now is that our mind; our thought processes, are what make us who we are. So if brain transplants become possible, which is probably not light years away from being science fact, then would having a new brain change who we were?

I realise that this is a little philosophical but as Christians surely we believe that we are greater the sum of our parts. We have a soul, a spirit, not sure what you want to call it, but something that lives on beyond our physical death (I wonder if it weighs, 21 grams *smile*). Is this the true us or could such medical procedures; science fiction or fact, have an effect?

I doubt if there are any medical philosophers who read threedays but you thoughts are valued all the same.