Suspending Credulity

"The first human transplant on human cadavers has been done. A full head swap between brain-dead organ donors is the next stage."
"We have entered an age where we will take our destiny back in our hands. Today, we stand on the brink of a revolution, not only in medicine but in human life as well."
Sergio Canavero, Italian surgeon

Jeff J.Mitchell/Getty Images    Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero

This is a man who appears to misspeak, for there was never a time when any living thing,designed by nature, was the master of its own destiny; that being the case, how can humankind 'take our destiny back in our hands'? as he exults in announcing that a surgical team he has coached in China has managed to transfer a head from one cadaver to the body of another cadaver? Of a certainty, the man is fixated on his theory that a severed spine can be repaired, that human consciousness can be transferred from one source to another.

Dr. Canavero along with a Chinese colleague, Dr. Xiaoping Ren, published in the journal CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics an account of an experiment that transplanted the heads of laboratory rats on the back of the necks of larger recipient rats, fourteen of which survived for a day and a half, back in April. They described a special pump and tubes used in the rat surgeries ensuring adequate blood supply to the donor's brain until the head was connected to the recipient.

Xiaoping Ren and Sergio Canavero, the surgeons behind the plans for the world's first human head transplant.   Newsweek

"The whole operation process preserves the carotid arteries, jugular veins and vertebral arteries", they wrote. The Italian surgeon created HEAVEN: the 'head anastomosis venture' project. Obviously if his theory could rival nature's creative process, why not coopt heaven too? Two surgical teams working together cut away two men's heads one of whom is the 'recipient', the other, an accident victim for example whose brain is dead but whose body is otherwise healthy is considered the 'donor'.

The recipient's head is placed on the donor body with the use of a specialized swivel crane after which it is reconnected and the trachea, esophagus, carotid arteries and jugular veins are stitched together and the wait ensues for the recipient to awaken and above all, move; a healthy brain/head whose ailing body has been replaced with a healthy one to produce an altogether functional and healthy whole.

This procedure, using two cadavers as a premiere to a progression toward restoring complete body health to an individual whose body has failed and whose brain is fully functioning, fusing his head to a healthy body whose brain is declared dead, took 18 hours to complete. It took place , according to the two surgeons, at Harbin Medical University, China. Its success giving Dr. Canavero the material for a book, Medicus Magnus; the Revolution Medicine and How We Utilize It.

Others in the medical community are yet to be persuaded, while bio-ethicists declare the surgeon to be reckless in his ambition. No one has yet been able to repair a spinal cord completely disconnected, according to other transplant surgeons. And there's the niggling little suspicion that once the transplanted head has been firmly established on someone else's body, should the procedure succeed, what guarantees are there that the original mind will dominate?

A similar operation on a live human will take place 'imminently', the controversial professor claims. Professor Canavero (right) made the announcement at a press conference in Vienna this morning (live stream pictured)