Surgeon Plans First Human Head Transplant Next Year

The neurosurgeon who intends to attempts the first ever human head transplant says he hopes to do so in the UK next year. Maverick and often criticized professor Sergio Canavero made the announcement while revealing a virtual reality project that he hopes will be used to get his patient ready for the experience of gaining a new body. The patient – Russian Valery Spiridinov – has already been chosen and the two hope to attach his head to a donor body. The operation will involve freezing Spridinov’s head and cutting it from his body. It would then be fused onto a donor body. Professor Canavero said the UK looked to be the “most promising place” in Europe to conduct the procedure, partly due to the huge support that he has received from the country. The operation could lead to “unexpected psychological reactions” in the patient – with one expert saying the experience could be “worse than death” – and so the virtual reality system is intended to avoid those. Professor Canavero said: “This virtual reality system prepares the patient in the best possible way for a new world… in which he will be able to walk again.” “ I do believe that it could get real traction if we push it hard here, so it is time for you here in Britain to start discussing all the ethical implications and if you are willing to see this happen here, because if the UK says no then it will be somewhere else.” In the system created by US firm Inventum Bioengineering Technologies, patients would participate in sessions for months before the surgery. Prospective patient Spiridonov said: “Virtual reality simulations are extremely important as it allows you to get involved in action and learn fast and efficiently. As a computer scientist I am extremely certain that it is an essential technology.” The procedure for cutting the spinal cord is said to be so delicate, with the need to avoid nerves, that Prof Farid Amirouche at the University of Illinois has developed a knife that can control cuts to a micrometer (one millionth of a metre).