Italian doctor says world's first human head transplant 'imminent'

[Jim Dandy]

An Italian doctor announced Friday that he will soon perform the world’s first human head transplant in China because medical communities in the United States and Europe would not permit the controversial procedure.

"The Americans did not understand," Sergio Canavero told a news conference in Vienna.

Canavero said the Chinese government and Xiaoping Ren, a Chinese doctor partnering with him on the procedure, would confirm the surgery's date "within days" to signal its goal of becoming a world leader in all fields, including medicine.

"Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to restore China to greatness. He wants to make it the sole superpower in the world. I believe he is doing it," Canavero said.

In a phone interview with USA TODAY, Canavero decried the unwillingness of the U.S. or Europe to host the surgery. "No American medical institute or center would pursue this, and there is no will by the U.S. government to support it," he said.

Canavero would not divulge the identity of the Chinese donor or recipient. The donor will be the healthy body of a brain-dead patient matched for build with a recipient's disease-free head.

Canavero estimates the procedure will cost up to $100 million and involve several dozen surgeons and other specialists.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/11/17/italian-doctor-says-worlds-first-human-head-transplant-imminent/847288001/

A few of the participants in the recent "Al Franken must resign" debate might benefit from this procedure.

[longship]

1. I can see where this goes.

[Irish_Dem]

2. One reason the rich want to be richer, they want to be immortal. And will be able to do it soon.

[brooklynite]

3. Meanwhile the Raellian cloned child should be heading to college shortly...

[mrs_p]

4. Ill go down on the record as

Being extremely skeptical of this being successful.

[LisaL]

7. Head transplant had been done in animals, so it's not impossible.

[mrs_p]

8. My specialty is in veterinary medicine

And pathology. I’m still a skeptic.

[longship]

10. Rubbish! nt

[LisaL]

14. Dog head transplant has been first done decades ago.

That's not in dispute.

[longship]

18. Did it go Woof Woof?

Connecting neural is not technically possible at the current time, or any time soon.

If one disagrees, provide a citation.

In other words, I dispute the claim.

My best to you.

[LisaL]

20. It was done over sixty years ago.

"Though Demikhov was not even the first to do so, he is most widely known for transplanting canine heads and upper bodies onto other dogs, effectively creating two-headed dogs. He performed these procedures on no less than twenty occasions, and all of his creations died in less than thirty days."

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/10/mad-scientists-of-the-modern-age-vladimir-demikhov.html

[longship]

22. "All of his creations died in less than thirty days"

Mostly on day one, no doubt. And the second head never barked, I'll bet, because Demikhov never, ever connected the nervous system.

Who would support such unethical research? It's not that it happened, it's that somebody fucking approved it!

Never mind! I'll go back to ridiculing this whole idea.

[LisaL]

27. They died because of rejection.

With anti-rejection drugs, a transplanted head presumably could last longer than 30 days. And yes, lets get upset over research approved by somebody over sixty years ago in Russia.

[longship]

37. Such research is unethical in any time.

No review board would approve it.

PERIOD!

This thread deserves only ridicule.

[LisaL]

38. You do understand this was done in Russia over sixty years ago, or don't you?

[struggle4progress]

24. Vladimir Demikhov seems to have grafted a second upper torso and head onto a living dog,

producing a creature (with two sets of lungs, six legs, and two hearts) that lived for four days

It wasn't a "head replacement"

[LisaL]

30. No, only one heart.

There were two heads on one body. But there were no additional hearts or lungs.
http://www.viralnova.com/two-headed-dog/

[Codeine]

39. Read the story to which you linked.

"The smaller dog retained its heart, lungs, and front paws when all was said and done." It even shows the retained organs on the diagram included.

[Codeine]

31. Sticking an additional head

(and in this case I believe it was more than just the head, but rather the front half of a dog) onto a dog isn't a "transplant" as such, it's just some nasty mad scientist experimentation. And even with the addition of the heart and lungs the poor beast died.

Transplanting a dog's head would mean taking a dog, removing its head, taking the severed head of an entirely different dog, and attaching it to the first dog's body. And that's going to be basically impossible because we lack the technology to attach the brain to the body, so to speak.

You'd have a paralyzed dog with a body kept alive via machine support; pointless cruelty, be it a puppy or a person.

Perhaps my definition of "transplant" differs from that of the doctor in question.

[LisaL]

34. Again, the reason the dogs were dying was rejection.

With anti-rejection meds, such an experiment could last longer.

[Codeine]

35. And again it will be a pointless exercise

because you'll just have a vegetable on life support; letting it die via rejection would be a greater kindness.

If I put a small block Chevy engine in my Mitsubishi Lancer, but I have no way to properly attach the electrical system or mate the transmission to the engine so it actually makes the car go vroom-vroom I can't very well say I've successfully installed it, can I?

[Jim Dandy]

5. Here are a few of my questions

Here are a few more questions. Will insurance cover it? Would a president's head transplanted onto another person's body still be legally elected? Will this newly configured person take the name of the head or the body? Or perhaps use a hyphenated name? And what if the patient was a male and requested a female body? Or vice versa? Would that be legal in, say, Indiana? Are there limits to how many times a patient can do this? Do the head and the body need to be around the same age? What if the head and its new body were to get pregnant? Which would be the parent? What if the head is male? Would a 60 year old head attached to a teenager's body be legally required to attend high school? Would a head attached to a body on SSI still be eligible for that government benefit? So much to think about.

[marble falls]

11. What the hell is the "successful" transplantation of a head onto a corpse", anyway???

This sounds like a click bait article.

[longship]

21. It's called a corpse.

And as none of this makes any sense whatsoever, I think one ought to just have fun with this thread.

BTW, have any of you heard of the human centipede?

Never mind.

[shraby]

13. You forgot one. How will he connect the spinal cord in a manner that wouldn't

leave the patient a quadraplegic.

[LisaL]

15. Does he promise the patient won't be quadraplegic?

[shraby]

16. Guess he didn't.

[Archae]

6. This quack pops up every so often.

making the same wild claims he knows damn well he can't do.

[Buns_of_Fire]

9. What if the body rejects the head? Case in point...

[MountCleaners]

12. Who can forget this one?

[maveric]

17. Would it be a head transplant or a body transplant?

With the brain being in the head and all that.

[Kirk Lover]

19. Does anybody remember the movie the thing with two heads. I feel like it was on all the time

in my childhood.

[struggle4progress]

23. ... he recently claimed to have "successfully" performed a head transplant on a monkey. But did he?

While the monkey head did apparently survive the procedure, it never regained consciousness, it was only kept alive for 20 hours for "ethical reasons" and there was no attempt made at connecting the spinal cord, so even if the monkey had survived long-term it would have been paralysed for life. So, it was a successful procedure, if you consider paralysis, lack of consciousness and a lifespan of less than a day as indicators of "success".

There was also his "successful" rat head transplant, which involved grafting a severed rat head onto a different rat, a living one that still had its head. Exactly how this counts as a "transplant" is anyone's guess. It's adding a (functionally useless) appendage onto an otherwise healthy subject ...

The human body is not modular. You can’t swap bits around .. Lego blocks ... Doctors have, in recent years, "reattached" a severely damaged spinal cord in a young child, but the key-word is "damaged", not "completely severed"; there's enough connection still to work with, to repair and reinforce. And this is with a young child, with a still-developing nervous system better able to compensate ...

So, to attach a completely severed spinal cord, a fully developed adult one, onto a different one .. that's .. been dead for days? That's, what, at least four further miracles required? And that's not to take into account immune rejection, the fact that we don't really know how to "fix" damaged nerves yet (let alone connect .. unfamiliar halves) and the issue that everyone's brain develops in tune with their body ...

No, there hasn’t been a human 'head transplant', and there may never be
Dean Burnett
Friday 17 November 2017 09.20 EST

[BoneyardDem]

25. Seems like it would be simpler

to just try and keep the decapitated head viable. In other words the good doctor (and more especially the donor) should quit while a head

[PoliticAverse]

26. Two heads are better than 1...

[TheDebbieDee]

28. I think USAToday has been the latest to fall for the head transplant hoax!

[loyalsister]

29. Ridiculous

We really need to get over the fear of mortality. It's a natural result of wear and tear on bodies that wear out over time.

[Codeine]

32. I don't "fear" mortality,

but if offered a reasonable alternative to getting old and croaking I'll most assuredly take it. I see no need to cooperate with death until I have no choice.

[Motownman78]

33. Someone must have seen the

new Wolfenstein Game tat just came out.

[Turbineguy]

36. They could do those

Last edited Sat Nov 18, 2017, 08:43 PM - Edit history (1)

on Trump supporters.

No problem.

[TexasBushwhacker]

40. I don't think it's possible

and I don't see why it would cost $100 Million.