Head transplant recipients face feelings worse than death

Valery Spiridonov, a 30-year-old Russian man, has become the first person in the world to volunteer for a head transplant, which involves attaching his head to another body to cure a rare disease that has left him confined to a wheelchair.

Head transplant could take place in 2017. (Source: independent)

According to Independent, the surgery is expected to be performed by Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero within 36 hours, with the participation of 150 doctors and nurses.

Although Spiridonov was prepared for the possibility that his new body would reject the transplanted head and he would die, a neurologist believes that if he underwent the surgery, Spiridonov would experience feelings worse than death.

“There are things worse than death, and I don't wish them on anyone,” said Dr. Hunt Batjer, president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons.

The problem, he said, is that grafting a head onto another body, including reconnecting the spine and blood vessels, is something no one has ever tried before, and is insane.

Arthur Caplan, director of medical ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center, called Dr. Canavero a “crazy guy,” and believes that head transplant recipients “will be overwhelmed by the differences in their new bodies and may go insane.”

45 years ago, in 1970, a head transplant was performed on a monkey. The animal only lived for eight days after the operation, because the new body rejected the head, and the monkey could not breathe or move because the spinal cord between the head and body was not properly grafted.

Dr. Canavero's head transplant surgery is expected to be performed in 2017./.

According to VIETNAM+