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Risky surgical neuro-surgeon wants to transplant head
An Italian surgeon wants to transplant a human head to another body for the first time. The grafting should be possible at the latest in two years. International external critic medical and ethical concerns about the project. The controversial project will be presented in a few days.
Separate the head of a sick person and place on a healthy body
The message is reminiscent of the famous movie classic "Frankenstein", in which a researcher creates a new entity from several body parts. This may not be a science fiction. According to the news agency dpa, according to the Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero 2017, it should be a reality to separate the head of a patient and put him on a healthy body. The doctor from Turin has announced that he wants to transplant a human head for the first time.
Transplantation of a head? A neurosurgeon wants to dare and reaps much criticism from his colleagues. (Image: sudok1 / fotolia) Voluntary patients are found
The project will be presented in June at a conference in the US. Volunteer patients are already found. Canavero said to the science magazine "New Scientist", "I think we are now at the point that all technical aspects are feasible." However, experts believe his plans are not only unethical, but also unworkable. "That's impossible. That is speculative, and nothing is going to be the furthest horizon, "said Professor Edgar Biemer of the German Press Agency. Biemer was involved in a spectacular arm transplantation in Germany.
Little is known about the doctor so far
It is reported that Canavero submerged before his lecture at the Congress of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopedic Surgery (AANOS) and is little known about his previous stations. According to AANOS, he has been studying the possibility of a head transplant for 30 years. According to New Scientist, Canavero wants the bodies of the brain-dead donor and the recipient to cool down before the operation, which involves hundreds of doctors, so that the cells can survive as long as possible without oxygen. Then it is crucial to separate the spinal cord clean, as the connection between the head and spinal cord is considered the biggest hurdle.
"This is not going to work"
"If I separate a spinal cord from the head, then that's it, and once and for all," said Professor Veit Braun, chief physician of neurosurgery at Diakonie Klinikum Siegen, on request of the dpa. "That will not work." At best, one has a patient with a functioning brain who has no control over the body. "This is very unethical." According to the report, Canavero wants to achieve the compound with the substance polyethylene glycol (PEG). The two ends of the spinal cord resembled two tightly packed bundles of spaghetti, which, with the help of PEG, are supposed to stimulate the connection - much like hot water sticks dry spaghetti together.
Head transplants so far only in animals
According to "New Scientist", there have already been several similar experiments on animals. For example, the Russian physician Vladimir Demikhov created a two-headed dog in the 1950s. And Professor Robert White of the Metro Health Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio transplanted a monkey head in 1970. The experimental animals, however, usually lived only a few days after surgery. In addition, White renounced the connection of the nerve cords, so that although the rhesus monkeys breathe, but could not move. In 2013, the Chinese Ren Xiaoping managed to transplant a mouse head. Ren Xiaoping explained that Canavero's experiment is based on his basic knowledge. "Last year, he contacted me and asked for advice on the operation," said the Chinese People's Daily researcher..
"I need a new body "
According to Canavero's plans, the patient should stay in a coma for about three to four weeks. When he wakes up, he should be able to talk and walk after a year of physiotherapy. The intervention should take about 36 hours and cost ten million euros. The 30-year-old Russian programmer Valery Spiridonov has volunteered. He sits in a wheelchair, has severe physical deformities and wants to have his head transferred to a healthy donor body. "I know that I can die. But I do not back down, "said Spiridonov. "I need a new body. Nobody can imagine what it's like to live with it. "Since childhood, he has been suffering from the disease of Werdnig-Hoffmann, which according to his statement, should have long since led to his death due to the loss of muscles, tissue and organs. Spiridonov said he did not have much time left and wanted to be the first: "You feel like the hero of a science fiction novel, almost as if you were flying into the cosmos." Canavero himself sees some of the project in particular ethical hurdles to come. Critics and clerics of the Russian Orthodox Church, for example, arugment, body and mind are one. "The real stumbling block is ethics," says Canavero. But he had already pointed out in the past that if the project can not be done in the US or Europe, that does not mean that it can not be done elsewhere. (Ad)