Just a few months ago, in February 2015, we wrote about Sergio Canavero, a physician at Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group. He decided to become the first surgeon in the world to transplant a human head. Serious statement.
It sounds creepy, but if it works, such an operation could help millions of people around the world. There are a number of people who suffer from muscle or nerve problems that lead to paralysis of the lower limbs. There are many others who have developed cancer in different parts of the body. For these people, a head transplant can significantly improve the quality of life or even save it.
Canavero claims that this procedure can be carried out with a high percentage of success. He claims that we have bypassed most of the major obstacles that prevented us from performing such an operation (for example, he claims that we can now solder the spinal cord and prevent the body's immune system from rejecting the new head).
Canavero also set a two-year deadline for such an operation. In his opinion, the first head transplant can be performed in 2017. Sounds shocking or even incredible. True, people have been involved in organ transplants for quite some time. The first successful thyroid transplant was performed in 1883 by Theodor Kocher, surgeon and Nobel laureate. So we have over 130 years of medical advances, but are these advances enough?
Most doctors think not.
Ultimately, the brain is the most complex mechanism known to man. The number of connections in it is simply staggering. Add to that all the chemicals that are involved in its work and affect consciousness, and things become incredibly complex. Due to the complexity of the task and our lack of understanding of the brain, many surgeons are skeptical about this procedure.
But Valery Spiridonov does not care. Spiridonov is a 30-year-old Russian who suffers from Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, a form of severe spinal muscular atrophy that prevents him even from supporting his own head (and also causes problems with swallowing, breathing and other processes that are associated with systemic muscle loss).
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Most people with such problems die before the age of 20, so Spiridonov was partly lucky, but for this very reason he decided to voluntarily go for an extremely risky (and probably fatal) operation.
If all goes according to plan, Spiridonov's head will be removed and attached to another person's body. However, experts hardly believe in the success of such an action. At best, this procedure will lead to death. Many fear the consequences will be even worse.
Renowned neurosurgeons believe that a patient may encounter an enormous difference in brain chemistry, and this will result in a madness never seen before.
Arthur Kaplan, Ph. D. and director of medical ethics at Langone Medical Center at New York University, believes this madness will be the result of "new chemistry drowning the brain, entering the body's unfamiliar nervous system, and so on." In addition, death is the most likely outcome, given that research on this topic has not even been conducted in animals.
In addition, Kaplan said a couple of unflattering words about Canavero: “This guy has never named a magic ingredient that will allow him to heal his spinal cord. Google about it. He has no real experience or publications in neurosurgery. I think he's just promoting himself."
Kaplan is far from the only one who does not believe in this procedure. In an interview with CNN, Dr. Robert Ruff, the national director of veteran affairs for neurology, called the procedure a farcical farce and that it is nearly impossible to implement at this time. He said that, most likely, centuries separate us from success, not years. When asked about a realistic timeline, he said that "it is impossible to look so far into the future."
Finally, Kaplan argues that we are better off focusing on real medical advances that will actually help people, rather than these sensational stories. And it's hard to disagree with him.