A terminally ill man has actually volunteered to go under the knife, have his head lopped off, and then attached to another person’s healthy body.
The world’s first head transplant surgery is slated for next year after a volunteer has given the nod to the radical procedure.
Thirty-year-old computer scientist Valery Spiridonov from Russia is suffering from a fatal muscle-wasting disorder called Werdnig-Hoffman disease.
If the operation goes ahead, Spiridonov’s entire head – including his brain – will be transplanted onto the body of a braindead patient.
Spiridonov says the operation is his best chance of survival.
“Am I afraid? Yes, of course I am,” he told The Daily Mail.
“But it is not just very scary but also very interesting … you have to understand that I don’t really have many choices.”
“I am now 30 years old, although people rarely live to more than 20 with this disease.”
The body would be a donor who was brain dead but otherwise healthy.
MORE: The woman who had a face transplant
The Italian surgeon who will perform the surgery, Sergio Canavero, claims that medicine is technically ready for the feat, and one day people could get new, healthy bodies at will, extending their lives indefinitely.
He wants to use the surgery to extend the lives of people whose muscles and nerves have degenerated or whose organs are riddled with cancer. He claims hurdles such as fusing the spinal cord and preventing the body’s immune system from rejecting the head, are possible.
Top Comments
Reading this I just felt really sorry for the dogs and the monkeys.
But other than that imagine how bizarre it would be to get a new body. To look down and have a different body?! And to have to learn to walk again etc.
If the guys consenting to it than why not?
Scariest medical advance yet. Could you imagine. Not having the body you were born with? I think id rather die.
Unless you're in this man's situation, I think you can't really say what you'd do. When faced with certain death, many people make different decisions than what they would normally make.
Then, assuming this operation is even possible in the real world, that would be your choice. Others may feel differently. I know if I were offered a healthy, working organ I'd snatch the opportunity for longer, better-quality life. I certainly don't think that JUST BECAUSE I don't want it, no one should have it.
No im pretty sure i know what id do. I dont have the healthiest body either and there isnt a day that goes by that i dont wish i could change it and be healthy. But i know i wouldnt want someone elses. The implications are unbelievable and down right frightening. For me. If someone else wants to do it more power to them. But not for me.
Different organ. Not different BODY. And i didnt say no one else should get this. Its just not for me.