The first head transplant – in which a living person’s head would be attached to a donor body – could happen in just two years, according to the radical statement of an Italian neurosurgeon. He claims that the major impediments, such as fusing the spinal cord and preventing the body’s immune system from rejecting the head, are now attainable.
Dr Sergio Canavero, from the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy, told New Scientist magazine that he wants to use the surgery to extend the lives of people whose muscles and nerves have degenerated or whose organs are riddled with cancer.
He explained that his technique, involves cooling the head and the donor’s body to extend the time their cells can survive without oxygen. Then, the tissue around the neck is dissected and the major blood vessels are linked using tiny tubes, the spinal cords of each person are cut, the head is moved onto the donor body and the two ends of the spinal cord are fused together. To merge the spinal cord from two people, Canavero intends to flush the area with a chemical called polyethylene glycol that will make the fat in cell membranes to mesh.
After the procedure, the recipient would be kept in a coma for three or four weeks to prevent movement, while electrodes would provide regular electrical stimulation to the spinal cord to strengthen new nerve connections. Canavero claims the person would be able to move and feel their face and would speak with the same voice and to walk after one year of physiotherapy.
The Italian neurosurgeon says several people have already volunteered to get a new body, but the toughest part might be finding a country to approve such a transplant.
“The real stumbling block is the ethics,” he says. “Should this surgery be done at all? There are obviously going to be many people who disagree with it.”
“This is why I first spoke about the idea two years ago, to get people talking about it. If society doesn’t want it, I won’t do it. But if people don’t want it in the US or Europe, that doesn’t mean it won’t be done somewhere else. I’m trying to go about this the right way, but before going to the moon, you want to make sure people will follow you.”
Soviet surgeon Vladimir Demikhov was the first to try a head transplant on dogs in 1954, but they only survived between two and six days. The first successful procedure was out in 1970 in Cleveland, Ohio, where the head of one monkey was transplanted onto the body of another. The monkey lived for nine days until its immune system rejected the head.