Human Head Transplant Procedure Sooner Than You Think, According to Dr. Sergio Canaveral
Everyone would think that a head transplant would be impossible but not for Dr. Sergio Canavero, who mentioned, on Friday that he will conduct a head transplant in China - a first in the world. He is confident that the head transplant he is about to perform will be a huge success.
The Italian doctor said that the Americans would not consider the idea that is why he will perform the risky head transplant. The United States and Europe did not give him the permission to do the debatable operation.
According to Dr. Canavero, both the Chinese government and his partner Chinese doctor who will do the procedure will soon confirm to him the date of the surgery. It could be sooner than what most people think to beacon its aim to be the world leader in aspects not to mention medicine, USA Today reports.
Dr. Canavero said that Chinese president wants to herald China to prominence and makes it the only country to possess global influence. The surgeon believes that President Xi Jinping means it.
The identities of the Chinese donor and its recipient were not disclosed. Dr. Canavero said that the donor is a brain-dead patient with a healthy body, while the recipient will have a head free of any diseases. He estimated the procedure to cost not more than $100 million that will require the help of several surgeons and specialists among others.
Unknown to many, Dr. Canavero and his team "went through" the procedure and completed it in 18 hours. If there are people who support his ideas and medical practice, there are also a few who opposes him.
One is the professor of Bioethics at New York University's Langone Medical Center, Arthur Caplan. He helped in organizing the US organ distributing system. As told to Live Science, he does not believe that transplanting a human head to a human body will ever be possible,
Experts are skeptical about Dr. Canavero's head transplant procedure. Besides, according to them, there will be a possibility that the patient would no longer be able to get back to normal consciousness because of the biochemical differences between the recipient's head and donor's body. The surgeon is a member of Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy.
