> Interesting. When (If) we ever get to the stage of grafting new limbs, whether grown, cloned or donated, onto long term amputees, will they feel them as "alien", as their own or will they even feel them at all?
>
> Beasty

Surgically grafting arms and hands onto amputees: Already been done. See article http://www.timesofindia.com/200100/20hlth1.htm which discusses the case, the second of its kind performed after the 1998 hand-graft operation on a New Zealander, Clint Hallam.

But would an amputee be able to properly regain use of newly-grafted limbs *after* a prolonged period of living without them? That remains to be seen. No reason why cortical reorganization wouldn't work equally well in reverse, though, regrowing existing pathways to innervate the hands/feet. If the patient has no parietal lobe damage, then s/he won't suffer the curious problem of seeing the new limbs as "non-self".