Two surgeons in China developing a method to transplant a human head

Here's the article:

A jolt of electricity is delivered to a body with bolts attaching its head to its neck. It's a scene straight out of a horror movie, but it is eerily close to Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero and Chinese surgeon Xiaoping Ren's plan to transplant a human head — down to the neck bolts and electricity.

Canavero and Ren recently performed a trial run on two cadavers, prompting outrage from the medical community, which has declared human head transplantation "fake news." An examination by a team of independent scientists published this month, however, suggests that, while fantastical seeming, the scientific and medical advancements necessary for human head transplantation are rapidly approaching plausibility. Nevertheless, major ethical and moral hurdles remain.

Canavero has been talking up his plan for human head transplantation in TED talks and the media for decades, despite producing little in the way of scientific evidence, going so far as to announce in 2015 that he would perform surgery on a human volunteer — a young man with Werdnig-Hoffman disease, a degenerative disease where the muscles waste away — by 2017. The volunteer backed out, and the surgery still hasn't been done on a living human, but Canavero maintains that it is "imminent." Together he and Ren, a surgeon at Harbin Medical University, devised a procedure for head transplantation, which they performed in a handful of animal studies on mice, rats and a dog, all of whom shockingly survived the surgery and even regained some motor function.

www.cnbc.com...

It's a long but good read.

First, you have to love Scientist like this who think outside of the box. One of them said this:

"It's reasonable to think about. Not only against. Think about it!" Ren said.

There's people who ask how can we do A or B and people who stop thinking and say we can't or there's no way A or B can happen.

I don't see the ethical or moral issues when it comes to this. Imagine a person is dying of heart disease or cancer and you can transplant their head to a different body and maybe to a robotic body eventually. I think that would be interesting but this would also have to be in concert with space exploration.

People could essentially live for thousands of years so you would have to have room for this longevity and if people are living on Mars or in a space station city, then I can see procedures like this becoming common. You add in gene therapy and nano medicine in about 30-50 years, there could be a real population problem because life can be extended for 100's of years. That's if we don't have some major nuclear conflict or get invaded by some hostile alien race before then.

Looks like the race is a-foot.
...or should that be a-head?

Isn't there a german doc doing the same thing? Wonder who's going to get to do it first? I think the latter is supposed to actually take place really soon.

originally posted by: StallionDuck
Looks like the race is a-foot.
...or should that be a-head?

Isn't there a german doc doing the same thing? Wonder who's going to get to do it first? I think the latter is supposed to actually take place really soon.

I say quit while you are a « cough » ahead...

I would like to see the outcome of the initial operation that has been planned for quite a while now!?

Warmest

Lags

It's amazing to think about this actually happening. We've all seen science fiction films and read many books on the subject. Never did we ever think that it could be a possibility.
I know it's early days, but hopefully they can pull this off succesfully and the technology improves over time. This type of operation could save so many lives.

Interesting.

All on ATS...

Aug. 2016 - 30-Year-Old Man Volunteers For The First Human Head Transplant In The World.

Apr. 2017 - Human head transplant to happen in China.

Nov. 2017 - First Human Head Transplant , Sucessful.

The last one was an animal trial run. This is not a new idea but has been planned out for years. The announcement was made in 2016. He keeps saying, "immanent" but not much has changed since the first announcement in 2016. I doubt anything will happen this year.

I think we will see a clone (or cell cloning to repair neural damage) or even CRISPR before this happens.

originally posted by: rhynouk
It's amazing to think about this actually happening. We've all seen science fiction films and read many books on the subject. Never did we ever think that it could be a possibility.
I know it's early days, but hopefully they can pull this off succesfully and the technology improves over time. This type of operation could save so many lives.

Interesting.

Good points. This could be interesting.

a reply to: neoholographic

Don't you think that if this was a real thing the procedure would have been performed on dozens of animals first? I'm not talking about some old movie of a two headed dog in the soviet union. A real demonstration of this modern technique. If this was ever successfully done on an animal, it would be broadcast around the world.

originally posted by: toms54
a reply to: neoholographic

Don't you think that if this was a real thing the procedure would have been performed on dozens of animals first? I'm not talking about some old movie of a two headed dog in the soviet union. A real demonstration of this modern technique. If this was ever successfully done on an animal, it would be broadcast around the world.

First off, it was broadcast and here's the pics.





www.independent.co.uk...

This is why some say it's unethical. This is because they're killing these animals. They do the transplant and then euthanize the animals. This really creates a problem because history is littered with scientific advancements that come from animal research.

The big problem will be connecting the spinal cord and getting full movement. I would suggest an exoskeleton. It might be easier and actually better in the long run because an exoskeleton can eventually become more efficient and durable than the human body.

I can see it as a way to keep a human head alive for a little while. The hardest part, of course, is splicing nerves so that they retain their function and don't get all globbed up by scar tissue. I used to think that maybe that could be accomplished using a bacteria or something. Micro lasers? Nanobots? If I knew how it could be done, I would be a super genius and super rich.

a reply to: neoholographic

I don’t see how this could be any less moral than any other organ transplantation.

originally posted by: Alien Abduct
I don’t see how this could be any less moral than any other organ transplantation.

Agreed. Unless you're using concentration camp prisoners to experiment on, the moral consequences of the research are really not an issue. Later on, if it proves to be incredibly successful, then there will be moral questions about who should get a head transplant (the rich, obviously), where the bodies will come from, and so forth.

As for animals... well, we all live today because of horrible things humanity has done and continues to do to animals. But on the other hand, some animals never had it so good thanks to humans, who pamper them and treat them like children. So maybe it's a wash.

a reply to: neoholographic

Beauty of this for the Chinese scientists..............they could produce two people and say they'd switched head on them and no one would ever know the difference!

A brave journalist got through the security and recorded the experiment.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: Alien Abduct
I don’t see how this could be any less moral than any other organ transplantation.

Agreed. Unless you're using concentration camp prisoners to experiment on, the moral consequences of the research are really not an issue. Later on, if it proves to be incredibly successful, then there will be moral questions about who should get a head transplant (the rich, obviously), where the bodies will come from, and so forth.

As for animals... well, we all live today because of horrible things humanity has done and continues to do to animals. But on the other hand, some animals never had it so good thanks to humans, who pamper them and treat them like children. So maybe it's a wash.

Good points. Animal Research is just a necessity.

Nearly every medical breakthrough involves animal testing and research.

If you’ve ever taken antibiotics, had a vaccine, a blood transfusion, dialysis, an organ transplant, chemotherapy, bypass surgery or joint replacement, you have benefitted from animal testing and research. In fact, practically every drug, treatment, medical device, diagnostic tool or cure we have today was developed with the help of lab animals.

Many diseases that once killed millions of people every year are now either preventable, treatable or have been eradicated altogether. Immunizations against polio, diphtheria, mumps, rubella and hepatitis save countless lives and the survival rates for many major diseases are at an all-time high thanks to the discovery of new drugs and the design of sophisticated medical devices and surgical procedures. In the coming years, a universal influenza vaccine may be a reality, as well as a vaccine to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

We have all been the beneficiaries of animal testing and research. Research with cows helped create the world’s first vaccine, which in turn helped end smallpox. Studies with monkeys, dogs, and mice led to the polio vaccine. Drugs used to combat cancer, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s, hepatitis, and malaria would not have been possible without research with primates.

fbresearch.org...

There should just be safeguards to make sure these things are humane as possible but without animal research, we might all be dead or have a 40 year old life expectancy.

originally posted by: TonyS
a reply to: neoholographic

Beauty of this for the Chinese scientists..............they could produce two people and say they'd switched head on them and no one would ever know the difference!

You being racist?

Wow, if some people think making a woman into a man or vice-versa is unnatural, just wait until they get a load of this.

a reply to: neoholographic

Thank you for the link. Still, they only kept the head alive for a short time. There is no evidence of a successful transplant. Keeping the head alive with a machine would accomplish the same result. Not ready for animals much less humans. They need to reliably be able to fuse the spinal cord first.

a reply to: Lagomorphe

Quit before your a head. Lol

a reply to: rhynouk

I haven’t seen the ted talk, but we are no where near being able to reattach all those nerves..

a reply to: neoholographic

People have been able to reconnect blood vessels and such since ww2.. the problem comes in all the nerves and spinal column.. which since we can’t do much for spinal injuries at all medically. I doubt this is more than sci fi.


But great find I’ll hunt down his ted talk