Medicine in the Star Wars universe

[superduperman]

Going off the movies (and only the movies, I have no experience with either the novels or the TV shows) it appears that their medical technology is only slightly more advanced than our own. They have cybernetic technology to replace limbs but it doesn't appear that basic medicine is much better. Amidala dies in childbirth. Grievus has his organs put into a precursor to what Darth Vader got with his lungs filling up with fluids. Vader himself needed an entire bodysuit to stay alive. Saw Gerrera was in an apparatus less advanced than Vader's. Finn is in a coma with no medical way to revive him. Blindness is clearly a thing there. Even Cracked did an article about how medicine in the Star Wars universe is the downside of living there. So my question is, would you be willing to live there knowing that about the only thing they would be able to treat you for is a missing limb?

[Conn Seanery]

What about Bacta tanks?

[superduperman]

There is those. But I'm not entirely sure what all they can do. Luke was brought out of hypothermia but I don't recall seeing them used for anything else. If they can cure diseases, I don't recall seeing it.

[Conn Seanery]

I think it's a general heal-all sort of thing (though obviously it doesn't replace what's been removed from the body). I assume that, given that there was a war going on, most of the Bacta was probably on the Empire's side.

[superduperman]

Is there a formal Star Wars manual or guidebook that explains what they are and what they can do?

[WebLurker]

Going off the movies (and only the movies, I have no experience with either the novels or the TV shows) it appears that their medical technology is only slightly more advanced than our own. They have cybernetic technology to replace limbs but it doesn't appear that basic medicine is much better.

Amidala dies in childbirth.

They didn't know why, which is something that'll probably always be a problem; medical problems that should follow the books but don't.

Grievus has his organs put into a precursor to what Darth Vader got with his lungs filling up with fluids. Vader himself needed an entire bodysuit to stay alive. Saw Gerrera was in an apparatus less advanced than Vader's.

That's stuff we couldn't do today, so that's pretty advanced. (Whether one would want to live like that is another question). It's also implied in canon that Grevious became a bunch of organs stuffed inside a robot body by choice.

Finn is in a coma with no medical way to revive him.

The coma was actually induced for medical reasons (established in the canonical novelization). The junior novelization (also canonical) does add that he was on life support as well and that while he prognosis was good, it hadn't changed since he stabilized (more than one day ago). The Rey's Story novelization (once again, canonical) does suggest that as of the night before Rey left for Luke's location, suggests that the doctors were not sure how exactly he was doing (due to lightsaber injuries not being common problems to treat).

So, a borderline case (they had it in control, but still uncertainty).

Blindness is clearly a thing there.

Where did you get that information? I doubt it's accuracy, given that advanced, fully-functional cybernetics are a reality there. The Tarkin novel established that there was an Imperial officer who used a working bionic eye to replace one he lost. Obviously the use of replacement eyes is by individual choice; for example we saw an Imperial officer in the Last Flight of the Harbinger story arc who chose to have an eyepatch instead. The Chewbacca comic miniseries had a minor character who's body rejected all implants, so he found a way to hook up to his droid's eyes to see when his vision failed.

Even Cracked did an article about how medicine in the Star Wars universe is the downside of living there. So my question is, would you be willing to live there knowing that about the only thing they would be able to treat you for is a missing limb?[/QUOTE]

Sure. First of all, most of the stories center around war, so we see a disproportionate number of battle injuries (not all of them treated in the best of conditions with the best tech available). Slightly better than us today is still better than us. Finally, if I ever had the misfortune to loose an arm, I would hope that prosthesis would be as advances as Star Wars ones would be.

Is there a formal Star Wars manual or guidebook that explains what they are and what they can do?

From the Wookepeida article on Bacta in canon:

Bacta was a thick, gelatinous substance with seemingly magical healing properties. It helped the body regrow tissue, including nerves, skin, and muscles.

(The work cited is Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know. While that book is ostensibly canonical, there are some discrepancies and non-canon Legends information in it too, so it's accuracy is suspect.)

Promoting rapid regeneration of organic compounds, bacta could be used in a variety of both critical and noncritical medical situations. Described as being warm to the touch, the bacta liquid could aid in the healing of concussions, internal organs, and broken ribs. Furthermore, it could be placed in small dishes to help regrow fingernails, mend cuts, burns, and other injuries. Due to its 'one-size fits all' use in medical applications, it was a highly prized and commonly used medical treatment for most if not all injuries.

(The work cited is the novel Bloodline)

[Buried Alien]

Where did you get that information?

ROGUE ONE. Chirrut Imwe, Donnie Yen's character, was evidently blind.

Guess he just couldn't afford Palpacare.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[WebLurker]

ROGUE ONE. Chirrut Imwe, Donnie Yen's character, was evidently blind.

Guess he just couldn't afford Palpacare.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Oh, right. Forgot about that.

I know the reference material indicated that he had technology in his staff and on his person that helped him around (like an artificial seeing-eye dog), but I'm not sure if they've established how he went blind and if there was a reason why he didn't have replacement eyes of some kind (personal choice or otherwise).

As I mentioned before, the Chewbacca comic miniseries did establish that some people can't use implants to fix vision problems because their bodies reject them. The A New Dawn novel also indicated that if nerves were too damaged, an implant wouldn't work. I would also imagine that money could be a barrier in some cases.

(Canon hasn't really explained if cloning can be used to replace body parts. We always see cybernetics, but no clue if that's a because there's a legal, technological, or financial reason that we alway see that and never a replacement clone eye, for example.)

[The Whovian]

Here you go:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Categ...s_and_medicine

[superduperman]

Thank you, everyone! Having only seen the movies I learned a lot today!

[ChrisIII]

Although they're no longer canon, the Clone Wars "Medstar" novels and some of the X-wing novels deal with the more medical elements of the Star Wars universe.

Healing is also considered an ability of the force, although we don't really see much of it in the film, apart from maybe Obi-Wan putting his hands on Luke's head in the original and him waking up shortly thereafter. Although I suppose the "save people from death" thing Palpatine said as bait for Anakin could be considered a form of force healing.


One of the old Clone Wars comics (also no longer canon) has Anakin trying to revive a dying Jedi with a force heart massage using something similar to the force choke.

[Zero Hunter]

I seem to remember somewhere seeing Bacta packs that could be used to heal no life threatening wounds on battle fields and such without having to use a full Bacta tank.