Surgeon Sergio Canavero plans first human head transplant for 2017

In just two years, the world may witness the first human head transplant. Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero believes that the surgery will extend and improve the lives of people who are paralyzed, suffer nerve damage, or muscle atrophy.

MSN reports that Canavero announced the project in June at the American Academy of Neurological and Orthpaedic Surgeons (AANOS) conference in Annapolis, Maryland.

So how exactly will he do it? In the Surgical Neurology International journal, Canavero gave a summarized description of the procedure for all the Frankenstein fans out there.

The willing recipient’s head, and the donor body is kept cold at the beginning of the procedure in order to allow the cells to survive without oxygen. The tissue around the recipient’s neck would be immediately dissected, while the major blood vessels would attach to the donor’s body with the use of tiny tubes.

The spinal cords would be cut, allowing the head to be moved to the body. Then, the two ends of the spinal cords would be fused together with a chemical called polyethylene glycol that encourages fat growth between cell membranes.

Once the procedure is complete, the patient would be put into an induced coma for four weeks to prevent any movement. It’s that simple.

According to The Guardian, Canavero has a volunteer who is willing to go through the procedure. The man’s name is Valery Spiridonov and he has been diagnosed with Werding-Hoffmann disease, or spinal muscular atrophy.

Even though Canavero has a willing patient, other doctors question the ethics of such an extreme procedure. Edith Tuazon, nurse and wife of surgeon Oscar Tuazon comments,

“Suppose you have a head transplant of someone who’s an artist and on to someone who’s not an artist –will that person be able to make the arms and the hands still draw? Will the hands still ‘think’? Will it think like it did before?”

Canavero could not give a direct answer to this question but he did say, “If society doesn’t want it, I won’t do it. But if people don’t want it in the US or Europe, that doesn’t mean it won’t be done somewhere else.”