Risky surgery … This man is expected to be the first person to ever have a head transplant. Picture: Australscope. Source: australscope
AN Italian surgeon is set to become the first in the world to transplant a human head on to a donor body.
The pioneering operation by Dr Sergio Canavero is to be carried out on a 30-year-old computer scientist who is suffering from a fatal muscle wasting disease.
Valery Spiridonov has admitted that the prospect of going through with the operation is terrifying.
“I am afraid, but what people don’t really understand is I don’t really have many choices.
“If I don’t try this out my fate will be very sad. With every year my situation is getting worse.”
The man from Russia, who is battling the rare genetic Werdnig-Hoffman muscle wasting disease, added: “My decision is final and I do not plan to change my mind.”
Last chance … Spiridonov says he has no other option. Picture: Australscope Source: australscope
Dr Canavero said he’s received many emails and letters from people seeking the procedure and he had already decided that the first patient would be someone suffering from a muscle wasting disease.
The procedure has some medical precedent as it was recently reported that Chinese scientists had carried out a head transplant on a mouse.
But most medical experts say a human head transplant is pure fantasy.
Dr Hunt Batjer, president elect of the American Association for Neurological Surgeons, told CNN: “I would not wish this on anyone. I would not allow anyone to do it to me as there are a lot of things worse than death.”
Originally published as The world’s first head transplant