Valery Spiridonov has volunteered to undergo the first human head transplant.
Advertisement
This narrative of severing someone’s head and attaching it to another human body may sound like a plot of some outlandish sci-fi or horror story, but it’s what the doctors are proposing to do.
Italian neuroscientist Dr. Sergio Canavero announced his plans a year ago to do the surgery by 2017.
Russian tech geek who runs an educational software company from his home east of Moscow. He is bound to a wheelchair by Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, a genetic disorder that causes muscles to waste away and motor neurons to die.
Xiaoping RenXiaoping RenXiaoping Ren, 55: Chinese surgeon who, when he lived in the United States, was on the team that performed the first successful hand transplant.
Who would the surviving patient be – Spiridonov or some kind of amalgam?
A custom-made crane would be used to shift Spiridonov’s head – hanging by Velcro straps – onto the donor body’s neck.
Many scientists have spoken out against Canavero and Ren’s plans, accusing them of promoting junk science and creating false hopes.
Dr. Canavero maintains he can perform the operation, estimating a 90% chance of success.
If it does take place, it would require 80 surgeons and cost tens of millions of dollars.
Even in the unlikely event that the surgery worked, it raises further, uncharted ethical concerns.
Time will answer these, and more, questions. This is because in the future it will help thousands of people who are in an even more deplorable state than I am, ” he says.
Dr Hunt Batjer, president-elect of the American Association for Neurological Surgeons, told CNN, “I would not wish this on anyone”. Owing to which, there are some models for the procedure.
Having written numerous respected papers including one about seducing women, he announced his enthusiasm for a head transplant back in 2013. He volunteered to participate in the first human head transplant because he believes it is the only way for him to live a normal life.
Advertisement
The two bodies will then be decapitated with Mr Spiridonov’s head and spinal cord fused to the donors’, with a special chemical agent being used to accelerate the growth of cells that make up the spinal cord. Meanwhile, the spinal cord on the head and the body will be severed. Finally, muscles and blood supply will be joined.
