Head transplant
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A head transplant, perhaps more accurately described as a body transplant, is a surgical operation involving the replacement of an organism's entire body below the neck with a replacement body. No such transplants have yet been performed on humans, but there have been many successful head transplants performed on monkeys by Dr. Robert White of Case Western Reserve University, who in 1984 announced that he felt his techniques were suitably developed to work on humans.
Since the technology required to reattach a severed spinal cord has not yet been developed, the subject of a head transplant would be a quadriplegic. This technique has been proposed as possibly useful for people who are already quadriplegics, and who are suffering from widespread organ failures which would otherwise require many different and difficult transplant surgeries. As of this time, there is no uniform consensus on the ethics of such a procedure.
See also: organ transplant, whole-body transplant
External link
- "The Frankenstein Factor (http://www.clevescene.com/issues/1999-12-09/putre.html)" - an article on White's work from clevescene.com, first published December 9, 1999
- "Frankenstein fears after head transplant (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1263758.stm)" - a BBC News article dated Friday, April 6, 2001