First human head transplant may be carried out in 2017 in China
Ren Xiaoping, a professor from Harbin Medical University, is the head of the Chinese team for the operation. He told the China Voice program of China National Radio on Monday that his team and Dr Canavero have been talking about pre-clinical research cooperation for the operation, but the exact timetable, place and whether or not they should operate on patients with this particular disease have not been determined yet. "It is possible to carry out a human head transplant if the condition of pre-clinical research is as effective and sound as we expected and various supports are there for the operation in two years," said Ren. The preparations for the operation are underway. Prominent and dedicated scientists from about ten universities at home and abroad are willing to join the team, including plastic surgeons from the Second Military Medical University and Fudan University in Shanghai, engineering professors from Beijing Normal University and those from North America and Europe, said Ren. Ren's team is also negotiating with engineering professors from Harbin Institute of Technology on medical equipment, some of which have patented designs, he added. "Such an operation cannot be achieved by a single man. My task is to initiate such an enormous project, which may not be solved by our generation", he said, "But we build a platform for the followers, accelerate its progress towards clinical application, train a group of young people and even enhance the reputation of our nation in international circles." Valery Spiridonov, the man who has volunteered to be the first person to undergo a head transplant, attends a news conference in Vladimir, Russia, June 25, 2015. The 30-year-old Russian, who has a degenerative muscle condition known as Werdnig-Hoffman, will be operated upon by Italian neurosurgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero who believes he has a 90 percent chance of success. [Photo/Agencies] Controversy over medical ethics Human head transplants have raised ethical concerns among people in the field. Ren disagrees with the opinion that norms come after behavior. "In medical history, every innovation has been realized before psychologists and ethicists establish norms for it. For human head transplants, since it has not been achieved clincally, there are no norms for it", said Ren. He cited a professor from Harvard University by saying that it is unreasonable to hamper its development if it is approved by the government and related legal departments. Three Chinese volunteered for operation The volunteer for the first human head transplant is Valery Spiridonov, a Russian computer scientist, who suffers from a muscle-wasting condition known as Werdnig-Hoffmann disease. Spiridonov hopes that the procedure will give him a second chance. Three Chinese also volunteered for such an operation, according to Ren. Many patients who heard the news begged Ren to consider them for the operation, only to get an explanation that it could not be achieved in the short term. Many patients, who suffer from terminal cancer,paraplegia or some congenital diseases, have a perfectly healthy head but a dead body. Some of them die without any treatment. Modern science had no way to improve their condition, said Ren. "As a medical scientist, what's your responsibility and duty? Whether you save these patients' lives or not? In the US, someone questions it on ethical grounds. Spiridonov asked the questioner whether he would oppose if he were in his condition", he said. What is a head transplant? A head transplant is taking a living head and putting it onto a new body. But actually, it's a body transplant, as the head will be gaining a new body to control. However, as the term "whole body transplant" is already used to mean transferring the brain between bodies, calling it a "head transplant" makes it clear that the whole head is to be switched, brain included. How would Canavero's human head transplant work? The donor body and the head to be attached are first cooled down to 12-15˚C to ensure that the cells last longer than a few minutes without oxygen. The tissue around the neck is then cut, with the major blood vessels linked with tiny tubes. The spinal cord on each party is then severed cleanly with an extremely sharp blade. At this point, the head is ready to be moved, and the two ends of the spinal cord are fused using a chemical called polyethylene glycol, encouraging the cells to mesh. After the muscles and blood supply are successfully connected, the patient is kept in a coma for a month to limit movement of the newly fused neck, while electrodes stimulate the spinal cord to strengthen its new connections. Following the coma, Canavero anticipates that the patient would immediately be able to move, feel their face and even speak with the same voice. He believes physiotherapy would allow the patient to walk within a year. What does the scientific community make of the human head transplant? Dr Hunt Batjer has attracted headlines for being particularly blunt: "I would not wish this on anyone. I would not allow anyone to do it to me as there are a lot of things worse than death." Dr Jerry Silver witnessed the 1970s monkey head transplant experiment and describes the procedure as "bad science", adding that "just to do the experiments is unethical". Dr Chad Gordon, professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery and neurological surgery at Johns Hopkins University, agrees that Canavero's claims are scientifically implausible. Dr Paul Myers, associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota at Morris, puts it even more explicitly: "This procedure will not work... Try it with monkeys first. But he can't: the result would be, at best, a shambling horror, an animal driven mad with pain and terror, crippled and whimpering, and a poor advertisement for his experiment. And most likely what he'd have is a collection of corpses that suffered briefly before expiring." Others wonder whether Canavero might simply be enjoying the limelight with a PR stunt, including Dr Arthur Caplan, director of ethics at the NYU Langone Medical Centre. Describing the doctor as "nuts," he explained to CNN: "Their bodies would end up being overwhelmed with different pathways and chemistry than they're used to, and they'd go crazy." Has a head transplant been tried before? No-one has ever attempted a human head transplant before, and attempts on animals have had little success. The first time a straight swap of heads was "successful", was by Dr Robert White, in an experiment on a rhesus monkey in 1970. However the monkey lived for a mere eight days after the operation. More recently, Chinese doctor Ren Xiaoping claims to have conducted head transplants on more than 1,000 mice. But none of these mice have lived longer than a few minutes. What are the challenges involved in a head transplant? 1. The surgery requires the brain to be chilled to 12-15˚C, and only 30-40 percent of brains can survive that. 2. Fusing a spinal cord has never been done before, and may not be possible. This is probably the main objection people have - this hasn't even been attempted on animals, and it sounds hugely unlikely that millions of nerves will be able to connect perfectly. 3. The transplant could be rejected. Immune system rejection occurs when the body sees a new part as foreign and attacks it. What are the possible side effects of a human head transplant? If the surgery goes ahead as planned, the most pressing risk is that the body will reject the head and the person will die. Of all the animals this kind of thing has been tried on - monkeys, mice and dogs - the longest any has lived is eight days. Writing for Forbes, NYU's Dr Arthur Caplan put this matter-of-factly: "I think the most likely result is insanity or severe mental disability."
