Science & Technology

Surgeon has transplanted the head of a monkey

By T.K. Randall
January 20, 2016

Image: Japanese Macaque
Credit: Alfonsopazphoto / CC BY-SA 3.0 (adapted) Controversial surgeon Dr Sergio Canavero, who believes that transplanting someone's head from one body to another is actually feasible, is so sure that this can be done that he has been asking billionaires for financial support to help him carry out such an operation on a live patient.

The intended recipient of the new body will be 30-year-old Valery Spiridonov who suffers from a genetic muscle-wasting condition called Werdnig-Hoffmann disease.

"When I realized that I could participate in something really big and important, I had no doubt left in my mind and started to work in this direction," he said. "The only thing I feel is the sense of pleasant impatience, like I have been preparing for something important all my life."Now in preparation for this feat Dr Canavero has claimed that he has managed to successfully perform the procedure on a live monkey at Harbin Medical University in China.

"The monkey fully survived the procedure without any neurological injury of whatever kind," he said.

Despite his assertions however the claim has been met with a significant degree of skepticism as no scientific confirmation of the operation has been forthcoming.

Many scientists have also raised concerns about what could happen to Mr Spiridonov should the procedure ever be attempted on him and what sort of existence he would have afterwards.

Source: Mail Online

Tags: Head Transplant, Sergio Canavero