World's First Human Head Transplant Planned

[Sealbash]

Are they playing God? It's a kind of Frankenstein story...ethical incorrect...should be banned

God gave humans the intelligence to allow development of this technology. Would it be unethical not to use the intelligence bestowed upon us?

[Gandtee]

Are they playing God? It's a kind of Frankenstein story...ethical incorrect...should be banned

God gave humans the intelligence to allow development of this technology. Would it be unethical not to use the intelligence bestowed upon us?

By that argument. 'God gave us the intelligence to kill our fellow man. Would it be unethical not to use the intelligence bestowed upon us'?

[geriatrickid]

It all sounds very "Boris Karloff"! Horror movie material.

Wrong movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI0dy_frKVo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FbtPY0GfSk

[soalbundy]

obviously this topic is open to jokes and i would be the last person to denounce that, i make many quips myself but we also ought to remember that it's about an intelligent young man who fate has decided he should go through this. He hasn't reached the age yet where death isn't so frightening, he has been cheated one could say but he has taken a courageous decision probably knowing that the outcome will be death on the operating table, so for all the humour let us wish him the best

[falangjim]

thats a bummer have to change all his id photos now

No, his head will be attached to a donor body. ID cards are usually, no pun intended, head-shots.

[MaeJoMTB]

Which ID does he get to keep?

Fingerprints and DNA from body

Passport photo from head

What if he has children? Who's the daddy?

Bit of a dilemma?

Edited April 15, 2015 by MaeJoMTB

[thousandpercent]

Are they playing God? It's a kind of Frankenstein story...ethical incorrect...should be banned

.

What the <deleted>? Why should saving lives be banned?

[thousandpercent]

I know some butterfaces that would benefit from this.

[mayview]

Are they playing God? It's a kind of Frankenstein story...ethical incorrect...should be banned

Why is it unethical? What is the ethical argument?

The man's body is dysfunctional and deteriorating; he is likely to die soon. His mind is functional but he will die without a functional body. The body used would be of a brain-dead person and offers the man a chance at life. God isn't in the equation. There is no increase in harm simply a high risk.

Edited April 15, 2015 by mayview

[bdenner]

no way this will work

they cannot even fix people with spine injury

I have to agree, what's the point of my head deposing of one useless body just to be replaced by another.

Wondering what sort of experiments have been carried out on animals thus far. AND if it failed did the head reject the body or visa versa.

[Shiver]

Walt Disney next in line. Cold Lazarus and all that...

It looks to me like the chances are very slim, but if you're faced with the option of 0% probability or 1%, if that's the best you have then why not take it. I would want to sign an 'exit strategy' though in case there were unintended consequences (very likely). All in all I don't think I'd take this operation, though it could be very enlightening for curious minds.

It does bring up a heck of a lot of issues, like people getting a heart transplant and suddenly they can play piano. Phantom limbs etc? I strongly suspect that a person is not just in the head, but is a lot more embedded than that.

[NoshowJones]

i want to live forever,please put my head on a good looking young man

You are not getting mine.

[slipperylobster]

I would be wary about donating my head....

However, a lower body transplant might be the cat's meow...as long as the crankshaft was still cranking.

[Neurath]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Some background information of the process and history.

First human head transplant could happen in two years

A radical plan for transplanting a head onto someone else’s body is set to be announced. But is such ethically sensitive surgery even feasible?

IT'S heady stuff. The world's first attempt to transplant a human head will be launched this year at a surgical conference in the US. The move is a call to arms to get interested parties together to work towards the surgery.

The idea was first proposed in 2013 by Sergio Canavero of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy. 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. Now he claims the major hurdles, such as fusing the spinal cord and preventing the body's immune system from rejecting the head, are surmountable, and the surgery could be ready as early as 2017.

Canavero plans to announce the project at the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons (AANOS) in Annapolis, Maryland, in June. Is society ready for such momentous surgery? And does the science even stand up?

The first attempt at a head transplant was carried out on a dog by Soviet surgeon Vladimir Demikhov in 1954. A puppy's head and forelegs were transplanted onto the back of a larger dog. Demikhov conducted several further attempts but the dogs only survived between two and six days.

The first successful head transplant, in which one head was replaced by another, was carried out in 1970. A team led by Robert White at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, transplanted the head of one monkey onto the body of another. They didn't attempt to join the spinal cords, though, so the monkey couldn't move its body, but it was able to breathe with artificial assistance. The monkey lived for nine days until its immune system rejected the head. Although few head transplants have been carried out since, many of the surgical procedures involved have progressed. "I think we are now at a point when the technical aspects are all feasible," says Canavero.

More here - Newscientist

Did the head reject the body or did the body reject the head or, in a paroxysm of even handedness, did each reject the other? How very confusing in an interesting way.

[pkspeaker]

As already mentioned , surgeons are not even close to repairing spinal cord injuries, so surgeries like this will at best create a paralyzed from the neck down situation for the patient.

[richard_smith237]

Are they playing God? It's a kind of Frankenstein story...ethical incorrect...should be banned

Playing God ? its saving a life ?.... Would you accuse the inventor of the defibrillator of also playing god? life saving doctors? surgeons? Alexander Fleming ?...

Where is this theoretical line in the sand ? who has the right to judge what's morally and ethically correct and what isn't when a life may be saved ?

While there may be some ethical concern if the technology meets the wrong hands, I can't see how these concerns outweigh medical development and the improvements techniques such as these can bring to those in need.

[harrry]

Is this a case of giving head or body.

[ggold]

frightening...

the stuff of Frankenstein! So they replace the head, presumably the recipient will awake with the mind and memories of the head donor! Did he get a profile of the donors personality, what if he is a serial what ever, a complete nut job. He certainly won't be a computer engineer after that.

Or is this just a head job, just replacing the scull, certainly doing my head in thinking about it! The chances of success seem so minimal, I can't see how this guy thinks he will survive, and that this isn't some ego trip by the Italian surgeon. Similar to the doctor who made a name for himself Helping a 65 year old woman become pregnant!

[Tywais]

As already mentioned , surgeons are not even close to repairing spinal cord injuries, so surgeries like this will at best create a paralyzed from the neck down situation for the patient.

Not necessarily. There is a big difference between a spinal cord injury from traumatic separation and damage and a long period of time before it is attended to and a controlled clean separation during the transplant procedure. They are using a chemical (polyether compound), polyethylene glycol, to fuse the nerves together which has been used successfully for nerve repair. Several studies on the effectiveness of it out there.

Certainly this is virgin territory but at sometime in the future, far or near, I believe successes will be more probable. Heart replacement surgery was a fantasy but now common place as with liver, kidney, lung. I would say the biggest hurdle in the long run will be an ethical one.

The individual who has volunteered I'm sure has given it a great deal of thought. His quality of life is probably quite bad and getting worse and he knows the final result.

[BadBouy]

This is shocking news. I had heard that they were first going to test this idea on TVF members due to some of the

posts they'd read.

Not true. That's a more complicated operation, first the head has to be extracted from the anus!

[Credo]

Oh, goodness, I thought getting hair transplants sounded traumatic.

[NickJ]

Whats the cost? Who will pay???? This burns me as an ex- health care provider.....what would the positves be.....more drugs ??? Whats the botton line??......What if this works to we ha e to look forward to as a society??? The synaptic connections will never occur....its changing a body out that has been worn down by a severley wasting disease.....the patient will still be unable to move.....I just dont understand this.......how about more time into diabetes....aids.......and about a plethora of illnesses come to mind......Hep C is curable at a Thousand bucks a day for 4 months......spend money getting the cost down......sad....

[GentlemanJim]

Whats the cost? Who will pay???? This burns me as an ex- health care provider.....what would the positves be.....more drugs ??? Whats the botton line??......What if this works to we ha e to look forward to as a society??? The synaptic connections will never occur....its changing a body out that has been worn down by a severley wasting disease.....the patient will still be unable to move.....I just dont understand this.......how about more time into diabetes....aids.......and about a plethora of illnesses come to mind......Hep C is curable at a Thousand bucks a day for 4 months......spend money getting the cost down......sad....

Well as a health care provider you should be acutely aware that it was advances in medical science and procedure that kept you in a job. 100 years ago we had little cures for anything. Now we have vaccines, antibiotics and a whole host of surgical and orthopedic procedures that add quality of life and value to people. The first heart transplant was a miracle, the man didn't survive too long, but he did survive, and the surgeons made the techniques and drugs better and better until now we have hundreds of thousands of people walking around with someone else's heart giving them another 40 years of life.

This procedure will have profound consequences for humanity - positive ones as well as the potential negative ones. It may lead to the ability to repair spinal injuries and a host of other things. Unfortunately as you should also be aware the fact is that big Pharma do not want cures for diabetes and cancer etc etc. They are businesses worth hundreds of billions a years across the globe, why would the powerful Pharma multinationals even allow cures to be forthcoming? It wont happen until we have a radical political change within society. Yes Hep C is curable at 1000 bucks a day or get the same drugs from India for 10 bucks a day. To quote your final word - sad.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

This is just another scam like Mars One.

[Sealbash]

Are they playing God? It's a kind of Frankenstein story...ethical incorrect...should be banned

God gave humans the intelligence to allow development of this technology. Would it be unethical not to use the intelligence bestowed upon us?

By that argument. 'God gave us the intelligence to kill our fellow man. Would it be unethical not to use the intelligence bestowed upon us'?

If it is to protect our own survival, then the answer is Yes

Are heart, eye, kidney, lung, etc transplants all unethical? Predestination? Sounds like Jehovah Witness talk.

All medications or vaccinations invented by man have improved life quality and life expectancy. How can we judge a new technology simply because we are unfamiliar with it?

Edited April 15, 2015 by Sealbash

[tifino]

If it could be done...

- then Stephen Hawkings would have already pioneered a way of turning the quantum physics of it, into reality

and got himself fixed

[John_Betong]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Will_Fear_No_Evil

Robert A Heinlein's novel about a brain transplant is an excellent read and recommended.

I believe it was written and inspired just after the first successful heart transplant.

Edited April 15, 2015 by John_Betong