{"id":78252,"date":"2017-07-20T09:39:37","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T13:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=78252"},"modified":"2017-07-20T09:47:14","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T13:47:14","slug":"dr-frankenstein-surgeon-wants-to-perform-worlds-first-head-transplant-in-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=78252","title":{"rendered":"Crazy Italian Surgeon Plans First Head Transplant in December, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Dr. Frankenstein\u2019 Surgeon Wants to Perform World\u2019s First Head Transplant in December<\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

Dr. Canavero hopes to transplant a head and reconnect it with the spinal cord of a donor body<\/h2>\n

By\u00a0Michael Sainato<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Sergio Canavero. Jeff J Mitchell\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

For years, Italian surgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero has been planning to attempt to perform the world\u2019s first head transplant and proposed that it would take place in\u00a0<\/strong>December 2017, garnering immense media attention and criticism.<\/p>\n

In 2013, Dr. Canavero outlined his plans for the procedure in a\u00a0paper<\/a>\u00a0published in Surgical Neurology International. \u201cIn 1970, the first cephalosomatic linkage was achieved in the monkey. However, the technology did not exist for reconnecting the spinal cord, and this line of research was no longer pursued,\u201d he wrote. Dr. Canavero proposed transplanting a head but included reconnecting it with the spinal cord in hopes of successfully transplant the head onto a different body. \u201cSeveral human diseases without cure might benefit from the procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n

By June 2015, Dr. Canavero was\u00a0recruiting surgeons<\/a>\u00a0to participate in the procedure, which will be conducted\u00a0on Valery Spiridinov, a 31-year-old Russian man with Werdnig-Hoffman disease, a rare genetic condition that prevents his muscles from growing.<\/p>\n

\n

Chinese Surgeon Dr. Xiaoping Ren\u00a0joined<\/a>\u00a0the planned procedure as Dr. Canavero\u2019s assistant. With China most interested in the procedure,\u00a0Spiridinov was allegedly replaced by a volunteer from China due to legal concerns. Dr. Canavero has also expressed\u00a0interest in performing the procedure in Vietnam or the UK, though a location for the procedure has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n

Eighty\u00a0surgeons from Russia, China and South Korea will be involved in the transplant attempt,\u00a0which is estimated to take 36 hours and cost $10 million. The team is scheduled to introduce themselves and explain their plan in June 2017 at a conference in Baltimore, Md.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Farid Amirouche, professor of mechanical engineering and bioengineering at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and director of the Biomechanics Research Laboratory and of Orthopedics Research, developed the blade that will be used to sever the volunteer\u2019s head from his body in attempt to replace it on the body of a brain-dead donor.\u00a0\u201cThe system cutter includes a disposable blade holder assembly with a diamond cutting blade, with the blade holder assembly sliding into and out of a rotating head, and a retractable and adjustable nerve holder with a fitting slot to avoid blade advancement beyond the nerve diameter. A reflecting array of lights is used on the adjustable holder to provide additional light and detection of the nerve surface and its position in relation to the blade,\u201d\u00a0said Dr. Amirouche in a\u00a0press release<\/a>. In November 2016, Dr. Canavero unveiled a virtual reality system for patients undergoing the surgery at the Glasgow Neuro Conference. One of the doctors planning the procedure with Dr. Canavero, South Korean Dr. C-Yoon Kim,\u00a0claimed<\/a>\u00a0to have successfully\u00a0reconstructed<\/a>\u00a0spinal and cervical cords in rats and a dog. Dr. Canavero and his team released photos and a\u00a0paper<\/a>\u00a0in February 2017 claiming an experiment they conducted in South Korea demonstrates that cervical spinal cord regeneration is possible. New Scientist\u00a0reported\u00a0<\/a>that several scientists noted this research doesn\u2019t directly translate to humans, and that much more work needs to be done.<\/p>\n

Dr. Canavero will begin his attempt by cooling the volunteer\u2019s body to 50 degrees fahrenheit\u00a0and severing both his head and the brain dead donor\u2019s head from their respective bodies and spinal cords. Polyethylene glycol will be used to connect the volunteer\u2019s head with the spinal cord of the donor\u2019s body. The plan is to induce the volunteer into a coma for a month while blood and new nerve networks rebuild in hopes that the body doesn\u2019t reject the head\u2014an inherent type of risk in all transplant procedures. In addition to the spine, Spiridinov\u2019s head will also have to be reconnected to airways, the esophagus and blood vessels.<\/p>\n

The planned procedure has incited ethical and moral concerns from across the globe. Some have\u00a0compared<\/a>\u00a0it to Frankenstein, and many believe the science doesn\u2019t exist yet for this procedure to be successful.\u00a0Some scientists and researchers\u00a0assert<\/a>\u00a0that Dr. Canavero\u2019s plan, no matter how ambitious, can never be successfully implemented because the body is a embodied cognition of its entire self. A doctor\u00a0wrote an\u00a0op-ed<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0Forbes<\/em>\u00a0in 2015 calling Dr. Canavero \u201cout of his mind.\u201d Dr. Arthur Kaplan, head of Medical Ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center wrote, \u201cEthically the big obstacle is what will happen if I stick an old head on a new body. The brain is not contained in a bucket\u2014it integrates with the chemistry of the body and its nervous system. Would a brain integrate new signals, perceptions, information from a body different from the one it was familiar with? I think the most likely result is insanity or severe mental disability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Canavero responded to Dr. Caplan\u2019s criticism that people who live with incurable and debilitating conditions have no access to any sort of treatment and are constricted to a very limited and degrading lifestyle.\u00a0He hopes in the future that head transplants can be conducted to prolong life and that clones can be used once the technology is improved and perfected on humans.<\/p>\n

The transplant attempt is still slated to be conducted sometime in December 2017 pending approval and funding.<\/p>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/observer.com\/2017\/04\/dr-sergio-canavero-head-transplant\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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