In case you haven’t heard, a doctor in Italy has announced plans to transplant a guy’s head onto a new body. Sound nuts?
Many of the headlines say so. “No, Human Head Transplants Will Not Be Possible by 2017,” said Popular Science. The International Business Times pronounced head transplants “not a thing.”
But I’m not so sure we should blow this off, whether it’s going to happen in 2017 or not. The more I read about the history of transplants, and spinal cord surgery, and experiments involving monkey heads, the more questions I have. And the less it all seems like a joke.
Experiments are already happening in animals, and the proposed human transplant does not appear to be a marketing hoax: the neurosurgeon, Sergio Canavero, is presenting his plans in June at a surgical conference.
If he does actually try to go through with it, suddenly head transplants will be a thing. And even if the plan fizzles, we might want to figure out whether we even want to go there, before someone does.
There are legal and ethical issues, and dollars-and-cents practicalities. Is it OK to use an entire body to save one person, when the organs could save many? Will we pay for it? Would you, if you could save your husband or wife’s head? (Answer that one carefully.)
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full original post: Human Head Transplant Proposed – How Did We Get Here?
