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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsItalian doctor says world's first human head transplant 'imminent'
An Italian doctor announced Friday that he will soon perform the worlds first human head transplant in China because medical communities in the United States and Europe would not permit the controversial procedure.
"The Americans did not understand," Sergio Canavero told a news conference in Vienna.
Canavero said the Chinese government and Xiaoping Ren, a Chinese doctor partnering with him on the procedure, would confirm the surgery's date "within days" to signal its goal of becoming a world leader in all fields, including medicine.
"Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to restore China to greatness. He wants to make it the sole superpower in the world. I believe he is doing it," Canavero said.
In a phone interview with USA TODAY, Canavero decried the unwillingness of the U.S. or Europe to host the surgery. "No American medical institute or center would pursue this, and there is no will by the U.S. government to support it," he said.
Canavero would not divulge the identity of the Chinese donor or recipient. The donor will be the healthy body of a brain-dead patient matched for build with a recipient's disease-free head.
Canavero estimates the procedure will cost up to $100 million and involve several dozen surgeons and other specialists.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/11/17/italian-doctor-says-worlds-first-human-head-transplant-imminent/847288001/
A few of the participants in the recent "Al Franken must resign" debate might benefit from this procedure.
longship
(40,416 posts)Irish_Dem
(47,697 posts)brooklynite
(94,911 posts)mrs_p
(3,014 posts)Being extremely skeptical of this being successful.
LisaL
(44,980 posts)mrs_p
(3,014 posts)And pathology. Im still a skeptic.
longship
(40,416 posts)LisaL
(44,980 posts)That's not in dispute.
longship
(40,416 posts)Connecting neural is not technically possible at the current time, or any time soon.
If one disagrees, provide a citation.
In other words, I dispute the claim.
My best to you.
LisaL
(44,980 posts)"Though Demikhov was not even the first to do so, he is most widely known for transplanting canine heads and upper bodies onto other dogs, effectively creating two-headed dogs. He performed these procedures on no less than twenty occasions, and all of his creations died in less than thirty days."
http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/10/mad-scientists-of-the-modern-age-vladimir-demikhov.html
longship
(40,416 posts)Mostly on day one, no doubt. And the second head never barked, I'll bet, because Demikhov never, ever connected the nervous system.
Who would support such unethical research? It's not that it happened, it's that somebody fucking approved it!
Never mind! I'll go back to ridiculing this whole idea.
LisaL
(44,980 posts)With anti-rejection drugs, a transplanted head presumably could last longer than 30 days. And yes, lets get upset over research approved by somebody over sixty years ago in Russia.
longship
(40,416 posts)No review board would approve it.
PERIOD!
This thread deserves only ridicule.
LisaL
(44,980 posts)struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)producing a creature (with two sets of lungs, six legs, and two hearts) that lived for four days
It wasn't a "head replacement"
LisaL
(44,980 posts)There were two heads on one body. But there were no additional hearts or lungs.
http://www.viralnova.com/two-headed-dog/
Codeine
(25,586 posts)"The smaller dog retained its heart, lungs, and front paws when all was said and done." It even shows the retained organs on the diagram included.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)(and in this case I believe it was more than just the head, but rather the front half of a dog) onto a dog isn't a "transplant" as such, it's just some nasty mad scientist experimentation. And even with the addition of the heart and lungs the poor beast died.
Transplanting a dog's head would mean taking a dog, removing its head, taking the severed head of an entirely different dog, and attaching it to the first dog's body. And that's going to be basically impossible because we lack the technology to attach the brain to the body, so to speak.
You'd have a paralyzed dog with a body kept alive via machine support; pointless cruelty, be it a puppy or a person.
Perhaps my definition of "transplant" differs from that of the doctor in question.
LisaL
(44,980 posts)With anti-rejection meds, such an experiment could last longer.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)because you'll just have a vegetable on life support; letting it die via rejection would be a greater kindness.
If I put a small block Chevy engine in my Mitsubishi Lancer, but I have no way to properly attach the electrical system or mate the transmission to the engine so it actually makes the car go vroom-vroom I can't very well say I've successfully installed it, can I?
Jim Dandy
(358 posts)Here are a few more questions. Will insurance cover it? Would a president's head transplanted onto another person's body still be legally elected? Will this newly configured person take the name of the head or the body? Or perhaps use a hyphenated name? And what if the patient was a male and requested a female body? Or vice versa? Would that be legal in, say, Indiana? Are there limits to how many times a patient can do this? Do the head and the body need to be around the same age? What if the head and its new body were to get pregnant? Which would be the parent? What if the head is male? Would a 60 year old head attached to a teenager's body be legally required to attend high school? Would a head attached to a body on SSI still be eligible for that government benefit? So much to think about.
marble falls
(57,425 posts)This sounds like a click bait article.
longship
(40,416 posts)And as none of this makes any sense whatsoever, I think one ought to just have fun with this thread.
BTW, have any of you heard of the human centipede?
Never mind.
shraby
(21,946 posts)leave the patient a quadraplegic.
LisaL
(44,980 posts)shraby
(21,946 posts)Archae
(46,369 posts)making the same wild claims he knows damn well he can't do.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,210 posts)MountCleaners
(1,148 posts)maveric
(16,446 posts)With the brain being in the head and all that.
Kirk Lover
(3,608 posts)in my childhood.
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)While the monkey head did apparently survive the procedure, it never regained consciousness, it was only kept alive for 20 hours for "ethical reasons" and there was no attempt made at connecting the spinal cord, so even if the monkey had survived long-term it would have been paralysed for life. So, it was a successful procedure, if you consider paralysis, lack of consciousness and a lifespan of less than a day as indicators of "success".
There was also his "successful" rat head transplant, which involved grafting a severed rat head onto a different rat, a living one that still had its head. Exactly how this counts as a "transplant" is anyone's guess. It's adding a (functionally useless) appendage onto an otherwise healthy subject ...
The human body is not modular. You cant swap bits around .. Lego blocks ... Doctors have, in recent years, "reattached" a severely damaged spinal cord in a young child, but the key-word is "damaged", not "completely severed"; there's enough connection still to work with, to repair and reinforce. And this is with a young child, with a still-developing nervous system better able to compensate ...
So, to attach a completely severed spinal cord, a fully developed adult one, onto a different one .. that's .. been dead for days? That's, what, at least four further miracles required? And that's not to take into account immune rejection, the fact that we don't really know how to "fix" damaged nerves yet (let alone connect .. unfamiliar halves) and the issue that everyone's brain develops in tune with their body ...
No, there hasnt been a human 'head transplant', and there may never be
Dean Burnett
Friday 17 November 2017 09.20 EST
BoneyardDem
(1,202 posts)to just try and keep the decapitated head viable. In other words the good doctor (and more especially the donor) should quit while a head
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)loyalsister
(13,390 posts)We really need to get over the fear of mortality. It's a natural result of wear and tear on bodies that wear out over time.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)but if offered a reasonable alternative to getting old and croaking I'll most assuredly take it. I see no need to cooperate with death until I have no choice.
Motownman78
(491 posts)new Wolfenstein Game tat just came out.
Turbineguy
(37,392 posts)Last edited Sat Nov 18, 2017, 08:43 PM - Edit history (1)
on Trump supporters.
No problem.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,232 posts)and I don't see why it would cost $100 Million.