Head transplant carried out on monkey, claims maverick surgeon

[progressoid]

The head transplant juggernaut rolls on. Last year, maverick surgeon Sergio Canavero caused a worldwide storm when he revealed his plan to attempt a human head transplant to New Scientist. He claimed that the surgical protocol would be ready within two years and said he intended to offer the surgery as a treatment for complete paralysis.

Now, working with other scientists in China and South Korea, he claims to have moved closer to that goal with a series of experiments in animals and human cadavers.

“I would say we have plenty of data to go on,” says Canavero. “It’s important that people stop thinking this is impossible. This is absolutely possible and we’re working towards it.”
“Science through PR”

The work is described in seven papers set to be published in the journals Surgery and CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics over the next few months. New Scientist has not seen the papers and has not been able verify the latest claims. The issue of CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics will be guest-edited by one of Canavero’s collaborators.

~~~

Canavero is seeking funds to offer a head transplant to a 31-year-old Russian patient, Valery Spriridonov, who has a genetic muscle-wasting disease. Canavero says he intends to make a plea to Mark Zuckerberg to finance the surgery. Last week, Trinh Hong Son, director of the Vietnam-Germany Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam, offered to host the procedure.

“If the so-called head transplant works, this is going to open up a whole new science of spinal cord trauma reconstruction,” says Michael Sarr, editor of the journal Surgery and a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “We are most interested in spinal cord reconstruction using head transplantation as a proof of principle. Our journal does not necessarily support head transplantation because of multiple ethical issues and multiple considerations of informed consent and the possibility of negative consequences of a head transplant.”

WARNING - graphic content at link
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2073923-head-transplant-carried-out-on-monkey-claims-maverick-surgeon/

[Warpy]

1. Oh, I'm sure he's managed to connect adequate blood supplies

and the head is still "living," but we're not yet advanced enough to do the microsurgery needed to connect cranial nerves and the spinal cord. The poor creature will need mechanical ventilation for its very short life.

When we are advanced enough to connect 2 spinal cords together, you'll have heard about reversing spinal cord injuries for years. We're just not there yet.

This looks like pure cruelty to me, an experiment worthy of Dr. Mengele.

[Stryst]

7. He claims that modern surgical instruments are the key

He claims that nerve cuts can now be made cleanly enough that an application of PEG compounds can protect the exposed nerve ends enough that the nerve fibers should heal cleanly together.

"Canavero says Kim’s work shows that the spinal cord can re-fuse if it is cut cleanly in the presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG), a chemical that preserves nerve cell membranes. “These experiments prove once and for all that simply using PEG, you can see partial recovery,” he says."

Full disclosure, I think this guy might be a little bent, and while he claims to have videos showing animals moving limbs after having their spinal cords cut and then reattached, no one can confirm the veracity of those videos. My understanding of the technology (which is pretty solids, as I was a BMET in the air force) is that we're not here yet, and it's WAY to early to even move to animal trials, let alone human trials.

[longship]

2. It was already done in the late 60's.

That's right. It's Spock's Brain, maybe the most inane of Star Trek's last season. (I mean other than the hippie one.)

[TlalocW]

3. The most ominous parts abou this whole thing is

That during early interview with him, the phrases, "Fools, I'll show them all!" and "Muahahahahaha!" were uttered by Canavero as lightning flashed across the sky.

TlalocW

[whatthehey]

4. Philosophically speaking, wouldn't this be a body transplant?

In the dim future where this might be anything but macabre experimentation, the consciousness and identity would remain located in the brain, so it's surely a head getting a new body rather than a body getting a new head.

[progressoid]

5. Yeah, but 'head transplant' sounds so much cooler.

[Stryst]

8. Maybe...

But I suspect that we're underestimating the role of the spinal cord. It's a huge amount of nerve tissue, and we know that certain aspects of reflexes involve the spine more than the brain. Maybe something we should know before we start fusing spines and brains from different individuals together.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

6. why?

...

[Judi Lynn]

9. Just because it occurred to him doesn't mean he has to do it.

He should consider a head transplant for himself. He most certainly needs a heart transplant already. He should look for a twofer.

[center]



Sergio Canavero [/center]
No one is welcome to cause suffering to others, in my private world.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

10. i like your world

he has a fundamental misunderstanding of his relation to reality