Human Head Transplant in 2016.

[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]

​

In an undated photo, Valery Spiridonov, a 30-year-old computer scientist from Russia that suffers from the rare Werdnig-Hoffman muscle-wasting disease, sits in a wheelchair. Spiridonov wants to be the first person to undergo a head transplant as early as next year. [Photo: chinanews.com]
Valery Spiridonov, a 30-year-old computer scientist from Russia, wants to be the first person to undergo a head transplant by Italian surgeon Dr. Sergio Canavero.
As a lifelong sufferer of the rare genetic Werdnig-Hoffman muscle wasting disease, Spiridonov said he wants a chance at having a new body before he dies.
Dr. Canavero and Spiridonov have not yet met in person, but talked via Skype, and Dr. Canavero has not yet reviewed the medical records of Mr. Spiridonov. However, they want to set the head transplant operation as soon as next year.
Dr. Sergio Canavero says that he has received many emails and letters from people seeking the procedure, but he insists the first patients will be people suffering from a muscle-wasting disease.
Dr. Canavero has named the procedure HEAVEN, which is an acronym for head anastomosis venture. Anastomosis involves surgically-connecting two parts to make a whole.
The Italian doctor insists all the necessary techniques already exist to transplant a head onto a donor body, which has aroused widespread skepticism and grounds of its medial feasibility and morality.
Dr. Ren Xiaoping, a renowned surgeon with the 2nd Affiliated Hospital at Harbin Medical University in northeast China's Heilongjiang province, has been in contact with Canavero.
The Italian doctor came to Ren in 2013, offering to work with the Chinese doctor to do research on human head transplant, since Ren Xiaoping successfully completed a head transplant on a mouse in 2013. Ren was also part of the first team of doctors from around the world that conducted a successful hand transplant in the U.S. city of New Jersey in 1999.
Despite challenges for head transplant for Primates, or even human beings, Ren Xiaoping says that there are still great chances of success for such an unprecedented operation. The two major hurdles remain are the prevention of the immune system rejection and the connection of the central nervous system.
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]