Are 'Head Transplants' actually on the way.

[peter]

Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero of The Turin Advanced Nueromodulation Group estimates that, with recent advances in spinal-chord reconnection, 100 sugeons working for 36 hours (in relays) could perform a complete head transplant (he prefers to think of it in terms of giving someone a new body) at a cost of $8.5 million. The two heads would he said, have to be removed simultaneously and the bulk of the vascular reconnection comleted within the hour, but the proceedure had, he felt, definitely moved out of the realms of science fiction and into that of the definitely possible if not realisable. Professor Anthony Warrens of the British Transplant Socity however was less enthusiastic "The whole concept is bizzare" he told The Sun.

(As an aside could the various positions of the two men sum up the national ethos/nature of the two peoples better if it tried.)

[I'm Murrin]

I read something about this - caveat, probably on Cracked.com - recently. It made a pretty good point: what happens when your body rejects your own head?

[Wildling]

I read something about this - caveat, probably on Cracked.com - recently. It made a pretty good point: what happens when your body rejects your own head?

Well, I'd say you've got yourself(ves?) a serious problem.

So I guess the immediate implication would be taking the head from, let's say, a quadriplegic and swapping it with a brain-dead but perfectly healthy and usable body?

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Yes, Wildling, that would be the ideal situation presuming the procedure works at all, which I doubt at this time. I already feel sorry for the first handful of attempts because they will all fail; by the time the 10th one is tried it will probably succeed because they will have learned what mistakes to avoid due to the failures. Still...reconnecting nerve tissue is one thing (such as in hand/foot/face transplants) but reconnecting spinal cord tissue? I'm just not sure we are there yet.

If head transplants are feasible and actually work, though, the next logical step would be brain transplant--remove the brain and intact spinal column from person A and place them into person B, giving person B a new lease on life--literally.

In either case, how strange will it be for the recipient to wake up and not recognize their own body? Even if the physical rejection issues are solved how about the potential for emotional rejection? Or would the joy of having a new body counteract that?

Anyway....no, it isn't ready yet. Possibly in a decade or so but not now.

[peter]

Agreed Hashi - the first attempts will be failures. The proceedure has been attempted once with monkeys with what degree of sucess I couldn't say; but it is safe to assume that it will be 'perfected' on animal subjects before human head transplants are attempted. Even so the first opperations will end in the death of the patients - but this is always the way of medicine. Advance comes at a price. The coronary bypass opperation, which has saved countless lives was developed thanks to the endevours of just one cardiac surgeon (whose name I forget) who continued to attempt the proceedure even in the face of countless failures when all other surgeons had abandoned the technique as not 'do-able'.

[Avatar]

I think they'd be willing to try, even knowing the first few would be likely to fail. Quality of life and whatnot.

Cue religious moralists though, since you'd be killing the brain-dead person.

Shades of The Island maybe?

--A

[peter]

I didn't actually see the report, but my wife said that SKY News reported that the first one is to be performed in the coming week. Why would anyone want a new head anyway?

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Some in the medical community would want the procedure to succeed to just to know that it is possible. Clearly the recipient would want the procedure to succeed because then they would have a new lease on life even though the first year or two would be mostly taken up with adjusting to the new body.

[Vraith]

I didn't actually see the report, but my wife said that SKY News reported that the first one is to be performed in the coming week. Why would anyone want a new head anyway?

On a living human being? Seems unlikely in the extreme...and loony, given the surge in recent research showing how much the body and brain are co-dependent/integrated [apparently even microbes in your intestines change your brain---]

Operationally, I'd wait to have mine done till when the "surgeon" is an expert system computer, in real-time, whole-system monitoring and communication with its millions of nano-bot scalpels and other tools. [except by then it will be totally unnecessary except in weird instances, since my body and brain will likely already be immortal.]

And I don't know that any body wants a new head. I think it's mostly heads wanting new bodies.

[peter]

Looked into it a bit deeper and it appears that the guy was holding a conference touring for surgeons to assist in the procedure at which the press were given access. He does want to do the thing in the near future however.

The question was my weak attempt at joke by the way: oh well, back to the drawing board in 'being funny' classes - perhaps I could do with a new head?

[Vraith]

The question was my weak attempt at joke by the way: oh well, back to the drawing board in 'being funny' classes - perhaps I could do with a new head?

Perhaps you could.
Not really---it's not that I didn't think yours funny, it's that I also found the picture in my head funny...a bunch of headless Beach Bodies running around looking for the perfect nose/hairstyle/eye color to accessorize their abs and butts.

I wonder, though---what are the possibilities if, say, Stephen Hawking got his brilliant head installed on a brand-spanking new stud-form?

Along a chaos-spun side-thought:
I once saw a flick called "How to get a Head in Advertising" [I think...], and I think I recall it being pretty damn funny. I think I remember a really good closing [or near-closing] monologue...
I definitely recall the following line being whispered [through a straw?? maybe...]:
"Boil....Can you hear me, boil?"