Before now, a lot of transplants have been known. Think of kidney transplant, liver transplant, heart transplant and even bone marrow transplant, all these are today common surgery processes. But the field of medicine has been known to be ground of surprises. In 1987, Dr Ben Carson, a paediatric neurosurgeon performed the first ever successful separation of Siamese twins that set the world aghast in awe. This amongst others has made the field of medicine a great field. But let us come back to the topic of discussion; human head transplant.
A head transplant is a kind of surgery which requires the grafting of one organism’s head onto the body of another. It should not be confused with another theoretical surgery, the brain transplant. Head transplantation involves decapitating the patient. Although it has been performed successfully using the rat, dog and monkey, no human being is known to have gone through the operation. Seeing that the technology require to re-attach a severed spinal cord has not yet been developed, the subject of head transplant would become quadriplegic unless proper therapies were developed. This technique has been suggested as likely helpful for people who are already quadriplegics and who are also suffering from a widespread organ failure which would otherwise require several distinct and difficult transplant surgeries.
In June 2015, a possible candidate was found. The candidate, a thirty year old Russian, Valery Spindinov suffers from Werdings Hoffman disease, a muscle wasting disorder which seriously reduces his physical capabilities and left him dependent on a wheelchair. He has announced his intention to become the world first subject of a full head transplant, so that his brain can be attached to a healthy body.
The recent vanguard for the renaissance of human head transplant is an Italian neuroscientist, Dr Sergio Canavero. He claims that by the year 2017, a successful human head transplant could be achieved but some doctors have doubts. He said the procedure which he called head anastomosis venture might be feasible with improved technology and more accurate ability to keep neural tissue profuse. He proposed USA or China as a better location for the operation. The whole process, Dr Canavero says is 90% guaranteed to succeed, though he admitted. He said that of course, there is marginal risk and he cannot deny that. The doubts of many doctors are based on the fact that the chance of Mr. Spindinov’s brain to be still functional by the time the surgery is complete is small. However, Mr. Spindinov is more optimistic. Mr. Spindinov said that if he has a chance of full body replacement, he will get rid of the limits and be more independent.
Stage one of the operations involves cooling the patient and donor’s bodies in order to prevent the brain cell from dying during the operation. The neck is then severed and the blood vessels from one body linked to the other with tubes. The idea of lowering the body temperature to between 15-17oC is a very well recognized technique utilized for composite cardiovascular or neurosurgery surgery in which there is an expectation that the brain will be starved of its oxygen and blood supply for an actual period.
Stage two sees the spinal cord cut with an extremely fine blade to minimize damage. The donor head is then removed, placed on the recipient’s body and the spinal cord fused back together again using polyethylene glycol.
Stage three involves knitting together the survivor’s blood vessels and nerves, though an expert in the vicinity of St. George’s clinic which is located in London, Dr. Cocker Matthew(neurosurgeon) said that he doubted whether the feat had ever been tried on such a degree before successfully. The body is then kept in a coma for several weeks to prevent movement and permit time for the spinal cord to stick itself back together. Mr. Crocker said that this is very speculative, that the issue here is that someone with a functional spinal cord is facing having that function completely removed.
In conclusion, some questions have to be asked. First what effect does this have on morals and religion(faith)? Secondly, who among the donor or patient is gaining or rather who among them is alive, the donor or patient? Thirdly, can this operation be done with patient and donor of opposite sex i.e. a male donor and a female patient or the other way round? However, people are looking forward to December 2017 when Dr. Sergio Canavero will perform the first human head transplant using the head of Mr. Spindinov Valery and the body of another patient who is yet to be known.
A head transplant is a kind of surgery which requires the grafting of one organism’s head onto the body of another. It should not be confused with another theoretical surgery, the brain transplant. Head transplantation involves decapitating the patient. Although it has been performed successfully using the rat, dog and monkey, no human being is known to have gone through the operation. Seeing that the technology require to re-attach a severed spinal cord has not yet been developed, the subject of head transplant would become quadriplegic unless proper therapies were developed. This technique has been suggested as likely helpful for people who are already quadriplegics and who are also suffering from a widespread organ failure which would otherwise require several distinct and difficult transplant surgeries.
In June 2015, a possible candidate was found. The candidate, a thirty year old Russian, Valery Spindinov suffers from Werdings Hoffman disease, a muscle wasting disorder which seriously reduces his physical capabilities and left him dependent on a wheelchair. He has announced his intention to become the world first subject of a full head transplant, so that his brain can be attached to a healthy body.
The recent vanguard for the renaissance of human head transplant is an Italian neuroscientist, Dr Sergio Canavero. He claims that by the year 2017, a successful human head transplant could be achieved but some doctors have doubts. He said the procedure which he called head anastomosis venture might be feasible with improved technology and more accurate ability to keep neural tissue profuse. He proposed USA or China as a better location for the operation. The whole process, Dr Canavero says is 90% guaranteed to succeed, though he admitted. He said that of course, there is marginal risk and he cannot deny that. The doubts of many doctors are based on the fact that the chance of Mr. Spindinov’s brain to be still functional by the time the surgery is complete is small. However, Mr. Spindinov is more optimistic. Mr. Spindinov said that if he has a chance of full body replacement, he will get rid of the limits and be more independent.
Stage one of the operations involves cooling the patient and donor’s bodies in order to prevent the brain cell from dying during the operation. The neck is then severed and the blood vessels from one body linked to the other with tubes. The idea of lowering the body temperature to between 15-17oC is a very well recognized technique utilized for composite cardiovascular or neurosurgery surgery in which there is an expectation that the brain will be starved of its oxygen and blood supply for an actual period.
Stage two sees the spinal cord cut with an extremely fine blade to minimize damage. The donor head is then removed, placed on the recipient’s body and the spinal cord fused back together again using polyethylene glycol.
Stage three involves knitting together the survivor’s blood vessels and nerves, though an expert in the vicinity of St. George’s clinic which is located in London, Dr. Cocker Matthew(neurosurgeon) said that he doubted whether the feat had ever been tried on such a degree before successfully. The body is then kept in a coma for several weeks to prevent movement and permit time for the spinal cord to stick itself back together. Mr. Crocker said that this is very speculative, that the issue here is that someone with a functional spinal cord is facing having that function completely removed.
In conclusion, some questions have to be asked. First what effect does this have on morals and religion(faith)? Secondly, who among the donor or patient is gaining or rather who among them is alive, the donor or patient? Thirdly, can this operation be done with patient and donor of opposite sex i.e. a male donor and a female patient or the other way round? However, people are looking forward to December 2017 when Dr. Sergio Canavero will perform the first human head transplant using the head of Mr. Spindinov Valery and the body of another patient who is yet to be known.
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