Head transplant??

[HarryPotterFan]

Warning for gruesomeness and general WTF-ery.

Sergio Canavero first made the news a couple years ago, and now he's back. He's claiming he can successfully perform a human head transplant, basically he wants put the head of a person with a healthy brain onto the body of someone who is brain dead. He apparently successfully performed the surgery on corpses. Okay then. The surgery will happen in China, because the US and Europe were essentially like, "WTF, no."

Totes gonna work. Because people with severed spines can totally walk around. And decapitation isn't death. And it wouldn't be unimaginably painful or anything. (Sarcasm font)

The surgery will take place in December. Canavero will publish a paper on the procedure soon, but not on the evidence because he doesn't have any.

http://www.newsweek.com/first-human-head-transplant-corpse-sergio-canavero-714649

Gotta love this quote from Canavero:

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"For too long nature has dictated her rules to us,” he said. “We're born, we grow, we age and we die. For millions of years humans has evolved and 100 billion humans have died. That's genocide on a mass scale. We have entered an age where we will take our destiny back in our hands. It will change everything. It will change you at every level.”

Natural death is genocide, guys. And while experts say spinal cord fusion isn't possible,  this dude disagrees.

The Guardian isn't having any of his BS (this article gets a bit more into his animal experiments, warning if that makes you queasy. Nothing graphic, but it is horrifying):

https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2017/nov/17/no-there-hasnt-been-a-human-head-transplant-and-may-never-be-sergio-canavero

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And this recent successful human head transplant? It was on corpses! Call me a perfectionist if you must, but I genuinely think that any surgical procedure where the patients or subjects die before it even starts is really stretching the definition of “success” to breaking point.

Loving the sarcasm.

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Canavero seems to have a habit of claiming barnstorming triumph based on negligible achievements, or even after making things much worse. He seems to be the neurosurgical equivalent of the UK Brexit negotiating team.

Enjoy?

[Stormy]

I've been following this since it was announced and I'm grotesquely fascinated. What's jarring is that the attempts at head transplants in animals have been merely semi-successful. I think there was a monkey and a dog that lived for a few days, tops (and likely in agony). So, yeah, the next logical step is try it on a human.

[HarryPotterFan]

That's a good way to put it, grotesquely fascinated. The monkey was only kept alive for 20 hours for "ethical reasons." He also sewed a mouse head onto another mouse.

This isn't experimenting on animals in the traditional sense to make new medical discoveries, this is torture. 

Another article from a few months ago (warning for disturbing picture of a poor rat): he's inspired by Frankenstein, wants to incorporate electricity into the procedure somehow, and dreams of people transplanting their brains into clones someday. And this dude went to medical school and passed his licensing exams. I'd question if this is real life and if he's serious, but yeah 2017 has proven we're trying the beginning phase of a dystopian novel. I also question how he hasn't been referred to a psych eval.

http://www.businessinsider.com/head-transplant-surgeon-frankenstein-2017-7

[LydiaAnn]

I am humbled to only now learn that I am a medical genius...I did this to several of my dolls when I was 7. 

[mango_fandango]

This guy sounds like a nutcase and a half. 

[Tangy Bee]

Wow...a real life Frankenstein.

[Dandruff]

Who would volunteer for this?

[PumaLover]

Why do I read this kind of stuff late at night as I'm falling asleep!? Seriously. As a rat lover that pic of the partial body sewn onto the other body is so disturbing. But yet weirdly fascinating. Thanks for sharing though because I love these kinds of things. I won't sleep, but I do love them!

[HarryPotterFan]

13 hours ago, LydiaAnn said:

I am humbled to only now learn that I am a medical genius...I did this to several of my dolls when I was 7. 

You should write a scientific paper on your successful head transplants. You can earn the Nobel Prize for your genius.

@PumaLover Haha, sorry about that. I'm morbidly curious about where this goes and if he actually attempts this on someone who is alive with a healthy brain. Or if someone stops him.

[LydiaAnn]

Also, wouldn't this be more impressive if the person was alive?? I mean, didn't he transplant a cadaver head onto a cadaver body? Like, not to be morbid, but anyone could do that with staples, gorilla glue, sewing kit...you get the point. Doesn't mean anything. It's a dead person's head onto a dead person's body...not impressive. I can't imagine HOW he'd even claim this was successful! How could you even test this to see if it worked??