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Possibility Of First Head Transplant Fraught With Ethical And Medical Dilemmas
www.medicalnewstoday.com ^ | 05 July 2013 | Written by Honor Whiteman

Posted on 08/01/2013 7:56:05 AM PDT by Red Badger

A leading neurosurgeon has revealed a project to carry out the first human head transplantation with spinal linkage within the next two years. The project is code-named HEAVEN/GEMINI.

Published in the June issue of Surgical Neurology International, the project has been outlined by Italian neuroscientist and functional neurosurgeon, Dr. Sergio Canavero. He says the procedure would take 100 surgeons 36 hours to complete, and would cost around £8.5 million ($12.6 million).

In 1970, US neurosurgeon Robert Joseph White performed an operation to transplant a monkey's head onto another monkey's body. However, the inability to repair the severed spinal cord due to lack of required technology proved a problem, and the monkey was left paralyzed, passing away days later.

But Canavero believes today's technology will overcome this hurdle and refers to previous studies in which scientist have reconnected spinal cords to rats. Canavero explains that the transplant will work if surgeons can successfully link the spinal cord to the head by fusing severed axons, the nerve cells that transmit information to different neurons, muscles and glands.

In the paper, Canavero explains:

"The greatest technical hurdle to such endeavor is of course the reconnection of the donor's and recipient's spinal cords. It is my contention that the technology only now exists for such linkage."

He explains that cut axons can be reconstituted using molecules such as poly-ethylene glycol (PEG), used in many areas ranging from industrial manufacturing to pharmaceutical products. Another molecule that can be used is chitosan.

The surgery would involve putting the recipient's head into a "hypothermia mode" for around 45 minutes between 12°C and 15°C (the HEAVEN process). It is thought that this time frame would create virtually no neurological damage.

The GEMINI procedure would involve surgeons cutting the cooled spinal cords with an "ultra-sharp blade," before reconnecting the recipient's head to the donor body. In the paper, Canavero explains that this clean cut is the key to spinal cord fusion, as it allows the severed axons to be fused accurately with the molecules.

He explains that what is equally important is that the motorneuronal pools, responsible for the contraction of muscle fibers and skeletal muscle, remain fully intact so they can be engaged by spinal cord stimulation. Canavero says that this is a technique that has proven effective for motor control in patients with spinal injuries.

As the human brain can only survive without oxygen for one hour, the surgeons would have to remove both heads and connect the recipient's head to the circulatory system of the donor body within this time frame.

Canavero says that it is clear the procedure would extend some patients' lives and would be far-reaching. However, he says that a select group of gravely ill individuals would be the target, such as people with muscular dystrophies.

But he cautions that as the procedure is deployed within the clinical area, it needs proper regulation. He adds that a risk could develop whereby people with adequate funds try to secure the bodies of healthy young individuals on the black market and have them transplanted by dishonest surgeons - something he says needs to be addressed by society.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: health; medicine; transplant
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1 posted on 08/01/2013 7:56:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

This scene always made me think of Nuns.


2 posted on 08/01/2013 8:00:50 AM PDT by theDentist (FUBO; qwerty ergo typo : i type, therefore i misspelll)
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To: Red Badger

3 posted on 08/01/2013 8:01:27 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("When there is no penalty for failure, failures proliferate." George F. Will)
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To: Red Badger

If they could take a stem cell and make it grow a complete body minus the brain they could then move a person’s brain/head to the new body and since the new body would have an ample supply of stem cells it may revitalize even a brain that may be degraded...

This could literally be a form of immortality...

Which is both scary and exciting...


4 posted on 08/01/2013 8:01:38 AM PDT by GraceG
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To: Red Badger

5 posted on 08/01/2013 8:01:42 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: Red Badger
The lack of donor bodies may require the use of living donors like some kidney transplants.


6 posted on 08/01/2013 8:01:45 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (This message has been recorded but not approved by Obama's StasiNet. Read it at your peril.)
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To: BenLurkin
The #$(%*#$(% seconds late!
7 posted on 08/01/2013 8:02:09 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (This message has been recorded but not approved by Obama's StasiNet. Read it at your peril.)
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To: Red Badger

That would be kinda like taking the hard drive from one computer and putting it in another without reloading the OS. The OS would wake up to a new set of hardware and software it doesn’t recognize. I know Windows would crater. Hope the human brain can overcome.


8 posted on 08/01/2013 8:02:44 AM PDT by TangoLimaSierra (To the left the truth looks like Right-Wing extremism.)
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To: Red Badger

9 posted on 08/01/2013 8:03:16 AM PDT by mbarker12474
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To: KarlInOhio

Wow!

Three seconds.

That’s got to be some kind of record.


10 posted on 08/01/2013 8:03:28 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: theDentist

Scientist: How many bodies do you have?
Head: None.............


11 posted on 08/01/2013 8:03:44 AM PDT by Red Badger (Want to be surprised? Google your own name......Want to have fun? Google your friend's names........)
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To: Red Badger

Is it a head transplant or a body transplant?


12 posted on 08/01/2013 8:04:11 AM PDT by Entropy Squared (The Rush to Chaos)
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To: TangoLimaSierra

Attaching the spinal axons is easy. Getting Window 8 up and running in that sucker is a bitch.


13 posted on 08/01/2013 8:04:37 AM PDT by mbarker12474
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To: TangoLimaSierra

Then we must use only APPLE brains.........


14 posted on 08/01/2013 8:04:49 AM PDT by Red Badger (Want to be surprised? Google your own name......Want to have fun? Google your friend's names........)
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To: Red Badger
Well, they may be able to physiologically tie everything together...and may even make a good part of it work.

But I honestly believe that the emotional and mental issues will render the patient insane.

With my Sacral Chordoma tumor and complete sacrectomy, the several surgical teams (Neuro Surgeons, Bone Specialists & surgeons, anisthesiologists, pain sepcialists, blood specialists, plastic surgeons,etc.) performed three major surgeries on me that cost upwards of 2 million dollars. They literallty took me apart and put me back together again.

I was in the hospital for almost four months, and then went through several months of very intensive rehab afterwards.

Overcoming all of that and learning to walk and be able to function again was very, very difficult...physically, emoytionally, and mentally. There was a lot of very significant emotional and mental attidue difficulties and adjustments in addition to the shear physcial issues associated woith it.

It's been almost four years since I was diagnosed and three and one half years since the surgery.

I do not believe a person waking up in a different body and having to learn to use all of those body parts (those that they can make work) will be able to overcome it. But that's just my own opinipon.

15 posted on 08/01/2013 8:06:04 AM PDT by Jeff Head
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To: Entropy Squared

Heads or tails............call it while it’s in the air...........


16 posted on 08/01/2013 8:06:09 AM PDT by Red Badger (Want to be surprised? Google your own name......Want to have fun? Google your friend's names........)
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To: Red Badger

A head traansfer?

Steven Hawkings comes to mind as a potential patient, it would have ot be someone who needs a new body, not a new head. Otherwise, you are just keeping a body around, say if someone had a bad head injury.

The other thing is, transferring say Stalin’s head to a new body, which could allow for super bad guys to live a lot longer

This practice needs to be heavily regulated if it becomes medically viable


17 posted on 08/01/2013 8:06:29 AM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)
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To: Red Badger

The Saracen’s Head (revisited!)


18 posted on 08/01/2013 8:06:45 AM PDT by SparkyBass
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To: BenLurkin
Wow! Three seconds. That’s got to be some kind of record.

I was in on a similar double post where they showed up the same second. JimRob had to go to the photo and I lost by a nose.

19 posted on 08/01/2013 8:06:48 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (This message has been recorded but not approved by Obama's StasiNet. Read it at your peril.)
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To: Jeff Head

Well, the transgender crowd will be excited......


20 posted on 08/01/2013 8:07:01 AM PDT by Red Badger (Want to be surprised? Google your own name......Want to have fun? Google your friend's names........)
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