Human head transplant Is it possible?
I'm pretty sure everyone's heard of recent huge news story that there's this Russian man with a very rare disease that is deteriorating his muscles. Although is body is extremely weakened and his body is slowly rejecting him, his head is complete healthy.. That is why there is currently a future surgery plan to remove his head and move it to a donor's body, the first every head transplant in history. Technically it's a body transplant since a human body is the one being donated but head transplant sounds cooler. Apparently, the donor of the body is living in a hospital is in a tomato state (brain dead, but body is fully functional). It leads me to ask the question: Do you think a head transplant is possible?
Imo, I don't think it's possible right now due the fact the technology is not here.
17 Comments • Newest first
@TrueAtheist: That was actually one of the concerns for the operation.
They have little knowledge of how the body and the brain's respective chemistries will interact, which means the psychological effect it will have on the individual (provided the body does not reject the head beforehand) could be anywhere from a drastically altered cognition to no effect at all.
@Sezbeth How's the body gonna work post head-transplant? Like, I doubt it would just start working as normal, what's the prognosis for that?
Well it's their first time doing a human head transplant so it's hella risky.
lol this surgeon better be fxcking great
funny thing i can barely disect a frog in biology
[quote=Sezbeth]@xylyls: I would assume that they're either going to sever the head from the initial body somewhere along the area where the thalamus is located or (the far more likely method) remove the head along with the spinal cord. Of course, that leads to question how they plan on inserting spinal cord into the donor body, which is past my knowledge of our body's biology, as my concentration is in behavioral neuroscience.
Though, I could do some quick research to find out how that would be possible.
As a response to a OP; the technology is in fact, there. The methodology, however, is still untested on anything outside of animal experiments.[/quote]
Surgeons are going to need some very steady hands, that's for sure.
@xylyls: I would assume that they're either going to sever the head from the initial body somewhere along the area where the thalamus is located or (the far more likely method) remove the head along with the spinal cord. Of course, that leads to question how they plan on inserting spinal cord into the donor body, which is past my knowledge of our body's biology, as my concentration is in behavioral neuroscience.
Though, I could do some quick research to find out how that would be possible.
As a response to a OP; the technology is in fact, there. The methodology, however, is still untested on anything outside of animal experiments.
@Sezbeth: Yeah, I was aware that there are methods to keep it "active" for a while, I just didn't think this would be possible. It blows my mind how far science has come. But isn't a part of your spinal cord going to get severed in some way? Wouldn't you become paralyzed if that cord were to be cut into, or disconnected
Hahaha, those russians are crazy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJE7IRK7k7Y
after a head is cut from the body it functions for about 8 seconds before its gone which is why I feel like that sort of execution is extremely cruel but either way this might work if it can be done under 8 seconds or if the head can be kept alive somehow
[quote=xylyls]How would they even do this without killing the person?[/quote]
Severing the head off of our bodies isn't necessarily an instant death.
There's still functioning cognitive and biological activity for a short amount of time before the brain shuts down entirely. There are two ways that one could, in theory, keep a head alive for longer than the typical time which would be warranted.
One being to freeze the head after severing, which is the least optimal way to perform this operation considering the head could still expire by way of hypothermia.
The other method (which is likely how they're doing it) would involve artificially cycling blood and oxygen to the brain during the time it is separated from a brain.
The question here is whether the human brain has the capacity to accept another body once attached (of course, provided that the donor body is a match). Again, within the realm of theory, our brains would have the capacity to do such, but considering the plethora of events which could interfere with the operation, it's still extremely risky.
@xfaceiess
shhhhh its ok,
a man with failing health has a chance to live granted by a donors body.
I just read the news story.
I'm going to have nightmares tonight.
I bet that surgeon never thought he would decapitate 2 people
I just want floating heads like futurama
id think it would be possible a brain has been done then again this was on a dog iirc
Don't forget 3.Oct.10
How would they even do this without killing the person?