Doctor Ready to Perform First Human Head Transplant (newsweek.com)

Ross Kenneth Urken, reporting for Newsweek (edited and condensed): Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero had his Dr. Strange moment when he announced he'd be able to do a human head transplant in a two-part procedure he dubs HEAVEN (paywalled, this alternate link could help) (head anastomosis venture) and Gemini (the subsequent spinal cord fusion). [...] Canavero has a plan: It's a 36-hour, $20 million 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 Valery Spiridonov (patient) and the other on the donor's body, selected from a brain-dead patient and matched with the Spiridonov 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.Shouldn't it be called a body transplant? Since a person is often defined by the brain. You can read the complete procedure here.

Comments

Yep, it's a body transplant

[BarbaraHudson]

But at $20 million dollars, it's definitely something you don't want to lose your head over. Too damn expensive!

Re:Yep, it's a body transplant

[jellomizer]

I am more curious on the long term effects vs. the procedure.

Our health and state of being is beyond just our brain. How we feel and experience the world is based on what our body translates as well. If you are feeling nervous stomach medicine can help that. Because when we feel nervous we send signals to our body and the sensation feedbacks to itself.

So getting a new body how much would that change the man?

Re:Yep, it's a body transplant

[macs4all]

But at $20 million dollars, it's definitely something you don't want to lose your head over. Too damn expensive!

Ba-dum-BUMP!

However, since the brain is off-limits to the immune system (which would REALLY love to attack and kill brain cells!), wouldn't it be better to do a BRAIN transplant, rather than messing with all the fleshy/muscle-y parts that are NOT off-limits to "rejection"?

Re:Yep, it's a body transplant

[BarbaraHudson]

Yeah. "you" are the head. It makes zero sense to talk about transplanting a head.

Unless you're talking about a penis transplant (an addadicktomy), in which case it makes perfect sense :-)

Re:Yep, it's a body transplant

[Applehu Akbar]

"And then we have stupidity like this bogus story [now8news.com]"

I hope that when this guy starts dating agin, he understands that neigh means neigh.

Re:Yep, it's a body transplant

[Mr D from 63]

If you upgrade the CPU is it still the same computer?

Not according to Microsoft.

Re:Yep, it's a body transplant

[OakDragon]

They were going to do a body transplant, but turned out the head is easier to pick up and move around.

Re:Yep, it's a body transplant

[marciot]

It costs an arm and a leg to get a head in this world.

Paywall

[bruce_the_loon]

Please stop posting paywalled articles.

Re:Paywall

[msmash]

Thanks for pointing that out. It's a feature article, so you wouldn't find this news elsewhere. I have updated the story to add a Google cache link of the story, check if that helps.

FINALLY

[argStyopa]

...I'll be able to use the Head of Vecna!
It has been a long, oft-tragic story.

http://www.blindpanic.com/humo...

Dammit Jim, it's a body transplant

[OzPeter]

Yep body transplant.

But can someone point to where he has done successful animal trials? Or even sliced and diced the same animal in order to reattach the spinal cord? Or Froze and un-froze an animal head?

Until the parts are tested, colour me skeptical

Re:Dammit Jim, it's a body transplant

[gurps_npc]

There are several examples that resulted in living animals that were paralyzed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...

Re:Dammit Jim, it's a body transplant

[SB5407]

AND, it said right there in the Newsweek article that Dr. Robert J. White did the first (mostly?) successful head transplant on a monkey in 1970. Lots of precedent for this, surprisingly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:Body Transplant!

[sinij]

Nobody wants a head transplant.

What a brain-dead idea to agree to a head transplant.

Why not go dual core?

[goombah99]

It seems like a better idea, that would have to work if the current plan will work, would be to graft the head onto a healthy fully functional human. That is you get a human with two heads. One head is already fully integrated to the body. That's important because your body depends on an autonomic nervous system to regulate it. Even if it is true that the new head could learn to control the body's mucles-- eventually-- its not going to work out of the gate. SO the body is going to die or be on life support while things rewire. And I would wonder how a body on life support even gets the feedback it needs to engage in some neural plasticity.

On the other hand if you just graft the head and don't bother with the whole spinal cord thing then you have a lot more possibilities. The new head gets fed by a healthy working body. You might need to step up glucose production to handle two heads but I think that's within our current dynamic range.

Thus you could carry your mom or dad's head around on your shoulder.

You could then try to connect their spine to some other neural interface, either indirectly through say some strips of chest muscle that then control some electrical interface or directly to an electrical interface. Either way, you have the means to control some mechanical arms so the head at least has something it can do besides go for a ride.

Things like speech might be a problem till you figure out how to get an airway, throat, and the anchor points for jaw and tongue working right, but in the mean time you could steven hawking it with some eyebrow muscles or eye twitches.

Sees a lot more plausible and they already have done this with dogs.

Re:Why not go dual core?

[kimvette]

Zaphod Beeblebrox, is that you?

Re:Immortal at last

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if this body transplant surgery works perfectly, you are not immune from disease like Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

Oh really?

Re:Exactly

[MobyDisk]

The article says it requires 150 people for 36-hours. Suppose these highly-paid medical professionals cost $100/hr. So $100/hr x 150 people x 36 hours = $540,000 just in labor. Add the machinery, the cost of the hospital rooms, the months to years of recovery, the training, medications - $20M seems like a bargain.

Also: From the standpoint of the body, it is a head upgrade! :-)

Identity and law

[Dareth]

On the off chance this actually works, he will have the fingerprints and DNA of the donor. Will he be responsible for children fathered by the body donor prior to the surgery? What about afterwards? Just a few thoughts off the top of my head. But it would be interesting to see how it would play out.

Aging on a younger body

[nanospook]

So if you are 70 and get grafted to the body of an 18 year old.. Assuming all goes well, what will happen? Will your head still die on schedule? Or does the younger body result in a rejuvenation of the head and brain?