# Lifestyles & Discussion > Science & Technology >  Surgeon: We could transplant human head in 2017

## Suzanimal

What could possibly go wrong?





> (NEWSER)  Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero said in 2013 that surgery to transplant a human head would be possible soon.
> 
> Now he's set to announce a project to do just that, via a keynote lecture at the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons annual conference this June. He sees the procedure as being possible as soon as 2017 and believes it should be pursued as a means of saving people with, say, multi-organ cancer, reports New Scientist.
> 
> But the obstacles loom so largespinal cord fusion among themthat most surgeons the magazine contacted dismissed the proposal altogether. "There is no evidence that the connectivity of cord and brain would lead to useful sentient or motor function," a prominent surgeon said. But earlier this month, Canavero sketched out what he considers to be a viable procedure in Surgical Neurology International:
> 
> First he'd cool the head of the recipient and the body of the donor (he intends to use a brain-dead donor) to give their cells the ability to survive longer in the absence of oxygen; then he'd dissect neck tissue and reattach major blood vessels before severing the spinal cordsand severing them sharply is key, he writes.
> 
> He proposes the use of a "specially fashioned diamond microtomic snare-blade" or a "nanoknife ... with a nanometer sharp cutting edge." But the most difficult part is fusing the two ends of the spinal cord; he believes polyethylene glycol could enable that. As New Scientist puts it, "Just like hot water makes dry spaghetti stick together, polyethylene glycol encourages the fat in cell membranes to mesh." A three- to four-week induced coma would follow.
> ...


http://www.11alive.com/story/news/he...2017/24066427/

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## William Tell

Are they out of their minds? have these people lost their heads?

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## Zippyjuan



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## Suzanimal



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## VIDEODROME

Wait till they can do an inter-species transplant like put a person's head on a silver back gorilla.

Or make a real Chimera

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## Suzanimal

> Wait till they can do an inter-species transplant like put a person's head on a silver back gorilla.
> 
> Or make a real Chimera



I didn't even consider that...

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## VIDEODROME



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## osan

> What could possibly go wrong?


It would bring new hope to Obama for that sex-change issue he's been nursing all these years.  

Were I Beyonce, I would be more than a little concerned.

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## anaconda

Thanks for heads up.

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## Ronin Truth

Spinal cord skepticism.

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## Acala

Unless there is a miraculous breakthrough in nerve repair, it ain't gonna happen for many decades, if not a century.  To my knowledge, there has been very little success in getting even simple mammalian motor nerves to reconnect, let alone bundles of millions of nerves that must connect in some semblance of the original order.

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## Valli6

it's been done already.

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## squarepusher

bad idea

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## RonPaulIsGreat

I think this is a job that will require a custom robotic surgeon, my super limited understanding of the spinal cord would lead me to believe that no human hand could ever approach the steadiness, and accuracy required for reattaching the nerves. I pretty sure the best result would be a head with no control of the body, barring functions controlled by hormones. 

No, thanks. I'll just wait 20 years before I get my head transplanted.

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## Working Poor

No wonder I want to live in seclusion...

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## tod evans

> Surgeon: We could transplant human head in 2017


I could use a new one now......

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## Spikender

On a robot body?

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## tod evans

> On a robot body?


Both my head and body have been ridden hard and put up wet way to often....

So I figure trading in either would help the other...

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## Spikender

> Both my head and body have been ridden hard and put up wet way to often....
> 
> So I figure trading in either would help the other...


Right.

I just really want a metal junk.

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## tod evans

> Right.
> 
> I just really want a metal junk.


Just the thought of rusty pussy turns me off............

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## Zippyjuan

Head Shops of the Future: 


http://mic.com/articles/16717/who-wo...the-big-winner

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## BV2

They could transplant one now.  Would it work?  I mean, would the brain recognize and run all the hardware properly?  It would be interesting to see if the DNA were compatible (Person A's DNA in the brain, B's in the body).  Or, as I think would be the case, would the two foreign units wage a merciless cellular war against each other?

Another problem: better have that body ready when the head comes off.  Brains like themselves some oxygen.  Then, when the connection is made, better have a way to slowly increase blood pressure so one doesn't wind up with a number of sudden aneurysm ruptures. 

People will never live forever.  Stop trying.  Even a copied consciousness isn't the person that holds it.  Furthermore, cloning is a dead end because new viruses and microorganisms will develop, and a clone's DNA, and therefore resistances, will be stuck in the past.  Clones don't last long, they cant because there DNA becomes obsolete?  I think that is a good word.

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## VIDEODROME

> They could transplant one now.  Would it work?  I mean, would the brain recognize and run all the hardware properly?  It would be interesting to see if the DNA were compatible (Person A's DNA in the brain, B's in the body).  Or, as I think would be the case, would the two foreign units wage a merciless cellular war against each other?


This has been done with an Monkey and set a precedent for head transplantation. It can be done if the practical problem of getting nerve bundles to connect in the spine can be solved.  Maybe STEM cells can help.

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## BV2

> This has been done with an Monkey and set a precedent for head transplantation. It can be done if the practical problem of getting nerve bundles to connect in the spine can be solved.  Maybe STEM cells can help.


Stem cells from Person A or Person B?  Also, what about hormone production, particularly the gastric hormones that trigger that "hungry" feeling and are, as far as I know, unique from person to person?

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## green73

*
EXCLUSIVE: Revealed, the terminally ill man set to be first to undergo the world's first full HEAD transplant pioneered by doctor branded 'nuts'*

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-Canavero.html

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## Zippyjuan

I guess in reality it would not be a head transplant but a body transplant.

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## Suzanimal

> *
> EXCLUSIVE: Revealed, the terminally ill man set to be first to undergo the world's first full HEAD transplant pioneered by doctor branded 'nuts'*
> 
> Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-Canavero.html


The guy has nothing to lose. I don't blame him a bit.




> He continued: 'My muscles stopped any development in childhood. Because of this, they do not grow and the skeleton gets deformed. The back muscles cannot support the skeleton.' 
> With his condition worsening each day, Mr Spiridonov is desperate for the technique to work. He told MailOnline: 'If you want something to be done, you need to participate in it.
> 'I do understand the risks of such surgery. They are multiple. We can't even imagine what exactly can go wrong. I'm afraid that I wouldn't live long enough to see it happen to someone else.'

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## mrsat_98

I think it would be just swell if they could get Obama's head out of his ass.

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## VIDEODROME



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## VIDEODROME

> I guess in reality it would not be a head transplant but a body transplant.


Transplant Everything. 

NOTE:  ROBOCOP 2014 spoiler scene



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXOhIJg4B7k

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## The Northbreather

Call Ponce de Leon, they've found the fountain of youth

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## Suzanimal

But what if he make it and is okay? The man has nothing to lose. I don't blame him for giving it a shot.




> ...
> 
> Hootan brings home whats really at stake for Spiridonov - its not just death he has to worry about**:
> 
> "A Werdnig-Hoffman disease sufferer with rapidly declining health, Spiridonov is willing to take a punt on this very experimental surgery and you can't really blame him, but while he is prepared for the possibility that the body will reject his head and he will die, his fate could be considerably worse than death, says Hootan. 
> 
> "I would not wish this on anyone," said Dr Hunt Batjer, president elect of the American Association for Neurological Surgeons. "I would not allow anyone to do it to me as there are a lot of things worse than death."
> 
> From speaking to several medical experts, Hootan has pin-pointed a problem that even the most perfectly performed head transplant procedure cannot mitigate - we have literally no idea what this will do to Spiridonovs mind. Theres no telling what the transplant - and all the new connections and foreign chemicals that his head and brain will have to suddenly deal with - will do to Spiridonovs psyche, but as Hootan puts it rather chillingly, it "could result in a hitherto never experienced level and quality of insanity". 
> ...


http://www.sciencealert.com/world-s-...rse-than-death

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## Natural Citizen

I'd rather go with the uploading of brains thing. Maybe we can upload Ron's brain and then scoot it on over to the brains of the rest of the country by way of wi-fi or something. Heh...

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## Suzanimal

> $11mn, 36-hour historic head transplant to be carried out in China in 2017
> 
> Italian doctor Sergio Canavero, along with his Chinese colleague Ren Xiaoping, is set to conduct the world’s first head transplant on a 30-year-old Russian patient suffering from a rare disease. The operation is planned for December 2017.
> The project was first announced in 2013, and the man who volunteered for the procedure is Russian Valery Spiridonov, who suffers from the extremely rare, progressive Werdnig-Hoffmann disease.
> 
> Canavero explained to RT why a Chinese partner was so important to have.
> 
> “China wants to do it because they want to win the Nobel prize. They want to prove themselves [as] a scientific powerhouse. So it’s the new space race,” the Italian surgeon said.
> 
> ...


http://www.rt.com/news/315149-head-t...nt-china-2017/

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## Ronin Truth

If it doesn't have to work, we could have done it years ago.

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## Acala

> If it doesn't have to work, we could have done it years ago.


Hahahahaha!

Let me ask a question.  If it was possible to reconnect a severed spinal cord, would Christopher Reeves be in a wheel chair?  It's the perfect scenario for success: his head and body are the perfect match.  No problems with immunology, no problems with physical dimensions or arrangements, no need to deal with blood vessels or muscles because they are still functional, even some of the spinal cord remains intact.  And essentially unlimited funds.  So why is Christopher Reeves in a wheelchair?  Because the regeneration of mammalian nerve tissue is virtually unknown beyond the most abstract laboratory experiment.



It ain't gonna happen.

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## Ronin Truth

> Hahahahaha!
> 
> Let me ask a question. If it was possible to reconnect a severed spinal cord, would Christopher Reeves be in a wheel chair? It's the perfect scenario for success: his head and body are the perfect match. No problems with immunology, no problems with physical dimensions or arrangements, no need to deal with blood vessels or muscles because they are still functional, even some of the spinal cord remains intact. And essentially unlimited funds. So why is Christopher Reeves in a wheelchair? Because the regeneration of mammalian nerve tissue is virtually unknown beyond the most abstract laboratory experiment.
> 
> 
> 
> It ain't gonna happen.


  I'm pretty skeptical too. 





> October 10, 2004, Mount Kisco, NY 
> Christopher Reeve, Died

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## Acala

> I'm pretty skeptical too.


See what happens when I let my "People" subscription lapse?

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## Indy Vidual

> 


I had that movie in mind, thanks for saving me from searching.

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## Zippyjuan

> Hahahahaha!
> 
> Let me ask a question.  If it was possible to reconnect a severed spinal cord, would Christopher Reeves be in a wheel chair?  It's the perfect scenario for success: his head and body are the perfect match.  No problems with immunology, no problems with physical dimensions or arrangements, no need to deal with blood vessels or muscles because they are still functional, even some of the spinal cord remains intact.  And essentially unlimited funds.  So why is Christopher Reeves in a wheelchair?  Because the regeneration of mammalian nerve tissue is virtually unknown beyond the most abstract laboratory experiment.
> 
> 
> 
> It ain't gonna happen.


Little string, bit of glue- you can fix anything! 




> Donor and patient will have their head severed from their body simultaneously, with an ultra-sharp blade. Then, the patient’s head will be attached to the donor’s body with *biological glue, plus stitches*.

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## Suzanimal

That monkey looks dead to me. O_o




> Surgeon Claims He Has Performed A Successful Head Transplant On A Monkey
> 
> Warning: This article contains graphic content. 
> 
> We have been promised a head transplant by next year, and the main brain behind the highly controversial procedure shows no signs of retracting his wild claim. Quite the opposite, in fact, as the pioneering surgeon has now announced the procedure has been successfully carried out on a monkey.
> 
> As revealed by Motherboard and New Scientist, Italian doctor Sergio Canavero has teased the press with some details on progress made so far by himself and collaborator Dr Xiaoping Ren of China’s Harbin Medical University, among others. Ren has invested a significant amount of time perfecting the technique in mice, having performed the transplant on more than 1,000 mice. The animals were able to breathe and drink after the 10-hour surgery, but only lived for a matter of minutes.
> 
> Now, according to Canavero, Ren’s team has carried out the transplant on a monkey. Although, even if this does turn out to be true, it doesn’t seem that any significant increments have been made since the ‘70s, when Dr Robert White managed the same feat. While the animals both reportedly survived the surgeries, neither involved an attempt to fuse the donor and recipient spinal cords. Though Ren did take a leaf out of White’s book, cooling down the brain to -15oC (5oF) in order to protect the nervous tissue from damage. After cleanly severing the spinal cords, blood vessels of the transplanted head were joined to those of the donor body.
> ...


http://www.iflscience.com/health-and...ly-carried-out

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## linus236

It's a little creepy but it'd be amazing if they can actually pull it off.

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## thoughtomator

I'm totally fine with this as long as I get to pick whose head and whose body are involved.

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## Suzanimal

I'm not sure I would trust Spiderman doctor to perform my head transplant. I wonder if he's gonna try to give him a superpower.




> Science or science fiction? How an Italian doctor hopes to perform first human head transplant
> 
> ...
> 
> Meanwhile, Canavero claims his detractors publicly denounce him but then approach him to learn more. And in a world of heart, lung, kidney, uterus and hand transplants, he wonders why we can’t yet transplant the human head. After all, back in 1970 American neurosurgeon Dr. Robert White conducted the first successful transplant of a head to another body when he operated on a rhesus monkey. Modern spinal cord fusion technology had not yet been developed, and the monkey lived only a few healthy days. But in 1999, White predicted that what “has always been the stuff of science fiction - the Frankenstein legend - will become a clinical reality early in the 21st century.”
> 
> Canavero has a plan, delineated in a June 2013 paper in the peer-reviewed journal Surgical Neurology International and presented in 2015 as the keynote address of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons’s 39th annual conference. It’s a 36-hour, $20 million (£14 milion) procedure involving at least 150 people, including doctors, nurses, technicians, psychologists and virtual reality engineers.
> 
> In a specially equipped hospital suite, two surgical teams will work simultaneously - one focused on Spiridonov and the other on the donor’s body, selected from a brain-dead patient and matched with the Russian for height, build and immunotype. Both patients - anesthetized and outfitted with breathing tubes - will have their heads locked using metal pins and clamps, and electrodes will be attached to their bodies to monitor brain and heart activity. Next, Spiridonov’s head will be nearly frozen, ultimately reaching 12 to 15 degrees Celsius, which will make him temporarily brain-dead.
> ...


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...-a7007676.html

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## LibertyRevolution

So they are going to stick the spinal cord together with PEG and they think it is just going to wire itself up properly through what, osmosis??
Did I miss some recent news article about PEG, a chemical commonly used as a pre-surgery laxative, magically repairing spinal damage?

I predict this transplant will go to $#@! quickly.

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## Suzanimal

> So they are going to stick the spinal cord together with PEG and they think it is just going to wire itself up properly through what, osmosis??
> Did I miss some recent news article about PEG, a chemical commonly used as a pre-surgery* laxative*, magically repairing spinal damage?
> 
> I predict this transplant will go to $#@! quickly.




Well, ain't that some $#@!? I had no idea that's what PEG was used for...I wonder if the head transplant patient victim is aware of this.

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## Danke

This could solve a lot of the problems for trannies.

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## Ronin Truth

What if it REALLY hates it's new body?   Maybe it will give permission and approval before the surgery.

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## The Northbreather

> Well, ain't that some $#@!? I had no idea that's what PEG was used for...I wonder if the head transplant patient victim is aware of this.


I use it for coolant in my heavy equipment, good stuff...

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## FindLiberty

OMG, hide the children

cover their ears

cover their eyes

protect the head...

and then they

TOOK THE BODY
AND LEFT THE HEAD!

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## TheTexan

Next step is we need to create a genetically modified strain of human that has no brain function so we can farm human bodies for transplantation.

It should be ethical to use their bodies for transplant as long as they have no brain.  E.g. Hillary supporters.

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## TheTexan

Except Jesus would not approve.  So we probably shouldn't do it.

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## Suzanimal

> Creepy 'brain in a bucket' study spurs medical, ethical debates
> 
> Three weeks ago, a Yale University neuroscientist, Nenad Sestan, explored the ethical implications of experiments using human brain tissue in an essay in the journal Nature. Then last week Sestan's own brain research was splashed across tabloids under lurid headlines like "Yale experiment to reanimate dead brains promises 'living hell' for humans."
> 
> First, a reality check: Sestan’s research used pig brains, not human ones, and nothing was reanimated. Bringing a dead brain back to life remains squarely in the realm of science fiction. But what Sestan and his team accomplished does take science into uncharted waters. Brain research is advancing so quickly that ethicists are scrambling to keep up.
> 
> The Yale researchers collected brains from 200 pigs at a local slaughterhouse and rushed them back to their lab, where the organs were kept medically active (though not conscious) by a system of pumps, heaters and oxygen-carrying fluid. The system is known officially as BrainEx and unofficially as “brain in a bucket.”
> 
> ...
> ...


https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science...m_npd_nn_tw_ma

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