Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero gestures as he speaks during a news conference in Vienna, Austria, on Nov. 17. (Photo: EPA) 
 
 An Italian doctor announced Friday that he will soon perform the world’s first human head transplant in China because medical communities in the United States and Europe would not permit the controversial procedure. 
 
 "The Americans did not understand," Sergio Canavero told a news conference in Vienna. 
 
 Canavero said the Chinese government and Xiaoping Ren, a Chinese doctor partnering with him on the procedure, would confirm the surgery's date "within days" to signal its goal of becoming a world leader in all fields, including medicine. 
 
 "Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to restore China to greatness. He wants to make it the sole superpower in the world. I believe he is doing it," Canavero said. 
 
 In a phone interview with USA TODAY, Canavero decried the unwillingness of the U.S. or Europe to host the surgery. "No American medical institute or center would pursue this, and there is no will by the U.S. government to support it," he said. 
 
 Canavero would not divulge the identity of the Chinese donor or recipient. The donor will be the healthy body of a brain-dead patient matched for build with a recipient's disease-free head. 
 
 Canavero estimates the procedure will cost up to $100 million and involve several dozen surgeons and other specialists. 
 
 He will simultaneously sever the spinal cords of the donor and recipient with a diamond blade. To protect the recipient's brain from immediate death before it is attached to the body, it will be cooled to a state of deep hypothermia. 
 
 The recipient and donor will be in a sitting position to facilitate what's expected to be more than about 24 hours of laborious work to separate and then reconnect vertebral bones, jugular veins, the trachea, esophagus and other neck structures. Machines will help the recipient breathe, pumping blood through the body. The patient will be kept in a drug-induced coma for an unspecified recovery time. 
 
 Michael Sarr, a former surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and the editor of the journal Surgery, said Canavero's procedure is radical. 
 
 Doctors "have always been taught that when you cut a nerve, the 'downstream side,' the part that takes a signal and conducts it to somewhere else, dies," he said. "The 'upstream side,' the part that generates the signal, dies back a little — a millimeter or two — and eventually regrows. As long as that 'downstream' channel is still there, it can regrow through that channel, but only for a length of about a foot." 
 
 This is why, he said, if you amputate your wrist and then re-implant it and line the nerves up well, you can recover function in your hand. But if your arm gets amputated at the shoulder, it won't be re-implanted because it will never lead to a functional hand. 
 
 "What Canavero will do differently is bathe the ends of the nerves in a solution that stabilizes the membranes and put them back together," Sarr said. "The nerves will be fused, but won't regrow. And he will do this not in the peripheral nerves such as you find in the arm, but in the spinal cord, where there's multiple types of nerve channels." 
 
 There has been some success using Canavero's proposed technique on mice and dogs. In one example, a dog walked after six weeks, albeit with an awkward gait. "Based on the classic thinking about how nerves regenerate it was unbelievable," Sarr said. 
 
 Canavero said his team has "rehearsed" his technique with human cadavers in China, but there are otherwise no known human trials. He said the 18-hour operation on two corpses showed it was possible to reconnect the spinal cord and blood vessels. Before the full transplant takes place, two brain-dead patients will undergo the surgery. 
 
 Most medical experts say it's a long shot, but even if the operation works the biggest obstacle may not be the science itself, but whether it should happen at all. 
 
 "There are too many risks at this point to go ahead with it," said Assya Pascalev, a biomedical ethicist at Howard University in Washington, D.C. "We don't have enough data with animal models, sufficient published and peer-reviewed results, and particularly data about morbidity and mortality on the animals that have had the procedure." 
 
 Pascalev said that any groundbreaking procedure is certain to face objections and skepticism, and requires a leap of faith. 
 
 "The first heart transplant, hand transplant, facial transplant: all were met with serious reservations," Pascalev said. "There are also regulatory concerns. China does not have the same ethical standards and requirements that the United States and Europe have." 
 
 She added that there were major unanswered questions about the recipient if the surgery succeeds, such as whether he or she would have legal rights to children produced by the new body. "It's not just about a head adjusting to a new body. We might be dealing with a whole new person." 
 
 Canavero dismissed these concerns. "Western bioethicists needed to stop patronizing the world," he said. He added that China's receptiveness to hosting the surgery reflected its determination to replace the U.S. as the world leader in all fields. 
 
 "Who sent America to the Moon? It was Wernher von Braun," he said, referring to the German immigrant who was an early rocket developer and space-exploration advocate for the U.S. 
 
 James Giordano, a professor of medicine and neurosciences at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, agreed with Pascalev that not enough rigorous study has been done to support a procedure with so many risks. 
 
 He said patients might be better served if Canavero focused on spinal reconstruction, not transplants. Yet he also gave him some credit for his pioneering work. 
 
 "He's run the ethical flag up the poles and said, 'Look, I'm not an ethicist, I'm a neurologist and this may be an avant-garde technique, I recognize there is a high possibility for failure, but this is the only way we can push the envelope and probe the cutting edge to determine what works, what doesn't and why.'" 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2ANIl5p ||||| Scientists have carried out a head transplant on a human corpse, the neurosurgeon behind the operation has announced. 
 
 At a press conference in Vienna, Austria, Sergio Canavero said his team was able to remove the head from one body and connect it to the body of another by fusing the spine, nerves and blood vessels. He said the next step will be to carry out the operation on a living person, The Telegraph reports. 
 
 "The first human transplant on human cadavers has been done. A full head swap between brain dead organ donors is the next stage,” he said. "And that is the final step for the formal head transplant for a medical condition which is imminent.” 
 
 Canavero said a “high number” of people have volunteered to be his first head transplant patient. It is thought he will carry out the operation in China in December. 
 
 The Italian neurosurgeon did not present any evidence of his claims at the conference. Instead, he said a scientific paper with details of the procedure would be released in the “next few days.” 
 
 "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.” 
 
 Canavero said his team has managed to cut down the time of the operation to just 18 hours. "After several transplants, the first full rehearsal has taken place in China. The surgery lasted 18 hours. I mentioned in 2015 that it should take 36 hours, but the Chinese improved on that in a spectacular way, and the surgery was successful. 
 
 See all of the best photos of the week in these slideshows 
 
 "The next step is a full head transplant on brain dead organ donors and the first human head transplant for medical reasons will take place imminently. The date will come from Xiaoping in the next few days." 
 
 Since announcing his plan, Canavero has attracted a barrage of criticism. Most experts agree that his plan is not plausible—with most pointing out that with current technology, spinal cord fusion is not possible. 
 
 There are also major ethical concerns regarding the legality of such a procedure, and a worry that the operation will fail but the head will remain alive. 
 
 Jerry Silver, a professor of neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, recently told Newsweek that technically the head could be attached to a respirator where it could remain alive for days in incredible pain. “Every muscle, the bones, everything has been severed,” he said. “Can you imagine the pain from all those cut things? That’s the worst. The head is going to wake up in pain.” 
 
 Canavero has remained defiant of his critics throughout, however. He told Newsweek that if the operation is a success—a likelihood he estimates to be around 90 percent—it would be a “tremendous revolution that you will not have seen for some time.” 
 
 “The surgery is long and tedious, but absolutely feasible,” he added. “One thing is certain. Spinal cord fusion is a reality and head transplants will happen.” ||||| Sergio Canavero claims he can make you immortal, but there’s a small catch. He first wants to chop off your head. 
 
 
 
 If that’s not a deal-breaker, you’ll be happy to hear that the Italian neurosurgeon has announced he will perform the world’s first human head transplant in China sometime in December. (He’s vague on details, possibly for security reasons.) He will remove the head of a patient—an unidentified Chinese national—and attach it to a donor body, origin (and cause of death) unknown. The spinal cord will be fused and the blood vessels and muscles attached. The patient—same head, new body—will be kept in a coma for around a month while he (or she?) heals. Canavero says that if successful, his patient will eventually be able to walk again. 
 
 
 
 If his plan sounds ludicrous, that’s because it is. Nobody knows how to fix a broken human spinal cord, and the scientific evidence that supports Canavero’s approach is highly questionable. Oh, and the ethics of performing an unproven procedure that jeopardizes one (or possibly two) human lives are sketchy, at best. 
 
 None of that deters Canavero, so hold on to your hats. 
 
 Paging Dr. Frankenstein 
 
 The human spinal cord is a long, thin tube of nerves that connects almost every part of the body to the brain. It is the pathway that allows the brain to give commands to the body, and the cells there are highly specialized—so much so that once damaged, they are effectively lost for good. Regenerating damaged spinal cord cells is extraordinarily difficult. 
 
 In the U.S., there are an estimated 12,500 spinal cord injuries every year, which is why Canavero is not the only scientist desperately trying to mend spinal cords. In the 1960s, renowned scientist L.W. Freeman experimented on rats, cats and dogs to find out if there were any circumstances under which spinal cords would repair themselves naturally. He removed small sections of spinal cords, then waited to see what would happen. Of the 66 animals that survived his surgery, six eventually regained what he deemed a “good” level of motor function. 
 
 That appeared to be an impressive achievement, but it did not necessarily apply to humans. The cut Freeman made was sharp and clean, but when humans injure their spinal cords, the tear is messy. Regardless, Canavero says Freeman’s work “shone light on the path,” inspiring him to delve deeper into lesser-known spinal cord research. 
 
 See all of the best photos of the week in these slideshows 
 
 He eventually found something else that excited him. After a skiing accident left a woman paralyzed in 2005—her spinal cord was completely severed—surgeons in the U.S. removed the damaged part and filled the gap with collagen, hoping the ends would fuse together naturally. A year and a half after the surgery, the woman could move her legs again. 
 
 Canavero decided this success, which defied medical dogma, demanded more research. “I had been taught spinal cord regeneration is not possible,” he says. “That was the proof that I had to accelerate the whole process.” 
 
 BruceBlaus/CC 
 
 The key, Canavero believes, is polyethylene glycol, or PEG, a type of gel that accelerates spinal cord fusion. He thinks that making a clean cut and then applying the gel would allow the spinal cords to fuse, rather than remaining frayed. That fusion would restore the pathway necessary for signals from the brain to reach the rest of the body. 
 
 He and other scientists on his team have released several papers that appear to show that his technique could work. In a study published in the Wiley journal CNS Neuroscience and Therapeutics, rats regained the ability to walk 28 days after being paralyzed. In Canavero’s mind, once you have the spinal cord problem figured out, the rest of the operation is just a case of connecting tissues. 
 
 He decided his plan should at least be given a try, which is why he announced in 2013 that he was going to do the world’s first human head transplant. This did not go down well. The scientific community was outraged—fellow neurologists condemned him as a fame-hungry narcissist who should be put in jail if he performed the operation. One prominent surgeon, Hunt Batjer, from the University of Texas Southwestern, also said that whoever underwent the surgery faced a fate “worse than death.” 
 
 In theory, a disembodied head could survive in suspended animation, staying alive with blood from the donor body but incapable of controlling any bodily function—and in incredible pain, says Jerry Silver, a professor of neurosciences at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who has spent his career seeking a cure for paralysis. The head will have a “miserable existence,” where it won’t be able to breathe or control its own heart rate—a fate far worse than being a quadriplegic. The head’s windpipe would be attached to a respirator, so it could be ventilated, and it could remain alive like that for days. 
 
 
 
 Scientists also ripped into the work Canavero cites as evidence supporting his approach. One study, by a team of South Korean scientists involved in Canavero’s project, drew considerable criticism for something published in the journal Surgical Neurology International (SNI). They had severed and re-fused the spinal cords of rats. Four of the animals drowned in a laboratory flood after the surgery. But instead of repeating the experiment, they concluded it was a success because the one surviving rat could move a bit. 
 
 This was one of a series of studies on head transplants published in SNI—a journal Canavero just happens to be the editor of. 
 
 Silver says the studies Canavero uses are not good enough because they used small numbers of animals, often with no control group. Plus, animal models supposedly showing fixed spinal cords do not justify doing the same with people. “You’re not going to jump from rodent to human,” he says, adding that Canavero’s head transplant plan is “criminal.” 
 
 CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics/Wiley/Peng-Wei Li et al 
 
 
 
 And regardless of whether these experiments lend support to Canavero’s theories, they are also disturbing. A rat with the head of another rat sewn onto its back or an unconscious monkey with Halloween-esque neck stitches is outside the bounds of acceptable scientific inquiry and threatens to turn Canavero into a Dr. Frankenstein figure creating monsters under the guise of scientific research. 
 
 Karen Rommelfanger, neuroethics program director at Emory University Center for Ethics in Georgia, raises one other intriguing caveat: the possibility that this operation is a sanitized version of murder. “If you still have a brain that’s alive...then to take that head off and take the body away, are we possibly killing someone?” she says. 
 
 Darren Ó hAilín, a doctoral molecular medicine student in Germany at University Medical Center Freiburg, says human head transplants are a very long way off, and that Canavero and his researchers are offering “disparate pieces of the puzzle and creating the illusion of a cohesive plan.” In reality, all we have as of now are “a mishmash of preliminary experiments.” 
 
 Instead of patiently and meticulously building on their findings, says Ó hAilín, Canavero is charging ahead. “He’s going directly to the press with pictures of a monkey’s head stitched into a monkey’s body and saying, ‘Here, we did it.’” 
 
 
 
 Canavero objects to the notion that past studies have lacked a control, a group of patients who did not receive the experimental treatment, so the results can be compared. He contends that only one of the studies lacked a control group, and that in that case, it wasn’t necessary. He and his team severed the spinal cord of a dog, which subsequently appeared to regain some movement. As a single case study, it provides proof (in Canavero’s eyes) that the spinal cord can be re-fused. 
 
 Kim et al/SNI 
 
 He sees his work as akin to the Wright brothers finally taking to the air for the first time. “It was just one plane, but it was enough to prove flight was possible,” he says. The dog, says Canavero, is like his first plane. 
 
 
 
 Two Heads Better Than One? 
 
 Canavero has at least one kindred spirit: Xiaoping Ren, from Harbin Medical University, in China. He will assist Canavero with the operation in December. Ren has performed thousands of head transplants on mice. The pair connected after Canavero published his human head transplant plan. “It was like falling in love,” Canavero says, describing their first meeting. “Two minds from such a distance that wanted to do the same thing. It was incredible.” 
 
 Now, they will have a chance to work together on their shared dream. 
 
 Canavero says the people who want this operation are willing to risk everything because they have nothing left to lose—they have no quality of life and are, in all likelihood, dying a slow and painful death. If the transplant fails, then at least they will die knowing that no effort to save them was spared. If it succeeds—well, then they have made medical history. And, of course, are still alive. 
 
 OOOM-Sergio Canavero 
 
 
 
 Silver objects to the notion that Canavero is giving someone a last chance at life. The memory of a monkey head transplant he witnessed as a postdoctoral student and the knowledge of what the patient could be facing is too much to overcome. “It looked horrifying,” he says of the monkey, “and in pain.” Even if Canavero were able to get some of the nerve and sensory fibers to fuse, says Silver, the pain could be unbearable. 
 
 “Every muscle, the bones, everything has been severed,” says Silver. “Can you imagine the pain from all those cut things? That’s the worst. The head is going to wake up in pain.” 
 
 
 
 Even if Canavero manages to connect the two ends of the spinal cord, the brain will not be able to take control of a new body, Ó hAilín explains. Although it’s true that our brains constantly rewire from the day we are born to the day we die, expecting a brain to adjust its wiring to a whole new body is wishful thinking. “What happens if those wires don’t connect?” says Ó hAilín. 
 
 
 
 Doctors also fear how the body will react to its new brain. In any transplant, the body sees the new organ or limb as foreign tissue, and the immune system attacks it. Patients who have a transplant have to take immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of their lives to prevent this rejection. And if the immune system attacks the new part despite the drugs, it has to be removed. 
 
 Canavero dismisses this problem, certain that a rejection of the head can be managed in the same way as a kidney or heart. But there is no evidence that immunosuppressants can overcome a body’s reflexive rejection of a new brain. 
 
 
 
 There is also a potentially staggering psychological impact. The brain may not be able to accept its new body, a phenomenon seen with other transplant surgeries. Clint Hallam, the world’s first hand transplant patient, had it removed after becoming “mentally detached” from it—he could not see it as part of his own body. 
 
 GERARD MALIE/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 
 
 None of this concerns Canavero. He believes that if his patient survives the operation, they can deal with any subsequent issues as they arise. In the 1960s, Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant, doing several things that today would probably be considered unethical—technically speaking, the donors he was removing beating hearts from may not have been dead. Barnard also had to have known some people would die as a result of his operation, but he proceeded anyway, and now, heart transplants are a common—and lifesaving—procedure. 
 
 Canavero is aware of the danger and places some responsibility with the patient, who has volunteered. “Let’s not be stupid—this is a risky surgery. But informed consent means that whoever goes under [my knife] knows full well what lies ahead and is in such a crippling condition that there is no other strategy for them.” 
 
 He also points out that uncertainty is part of medical advances. Gene editing and immunotherapy techniques currently being developed also come with risks, Canavero points out. One immunotherapy trial had to be put on hold last year following the death of three patients. 
 
 Canavero sees his forthcoming operation as a boon for not just people in need of spinal cord surgery but all humanity. Medicine, he says, has failed us. Despite all our best research efforts, we still haven’t got a cure for cancer, HIV, malaria and countless other fatal conditions. Breakthroughs, he believes, will come only by taking risks. 
 
 If successful, the operation would provide a treatment option for people with quadriplegia or muscle-wasting diseases that leave them incapable of moving. A body riddled with cancer could be replaced, for example. The most radical possibility is that transplanting heads could lead to a form of immortality—swapping an old body for a new one whenever it’s required, like changing tires on a car. 
 
 The many issues relating to Canavero’s plan remain unresolved (to put it mildly), but his team is planning to perform the operation in December. If it succeeds, Canavero will become a giant in the history of medical research. 
 
 And if the operation fails, he will try again. He knows that’s the only way to get ahead. ||||| PHOTOS PIERO MARTINELLO I GUARDIAN 
 
 (Für die deutsche Version des Artikels klicken Sie bitte hier) 
 
 Four years ago, his announcement was featured in all global media outlets: Prof. Sergio Canavero, renowned neurosurgeon from Turin, is planning the world’s first transplantation of a human head. The subsequent outcry resonated loudly throughout the medical community: many experts agreed that such an undertaking would never be successful, much less at any point within the next few decades. However, together with various teams in the US, China and South Korea, the author of more than 140 scientific publications continued to pursue the plan he called HEAVEN (Head Anastomosis Venture). In his GEMINI protocol, Canavero outlines every necessary step of the procedure in detail, laid out like in an instruction manual. Whereas the media covered his project in thousands of features published and broadcast around the globe from CNN to the New York Times, from the Independent to the Guardian, Sergio Canavero reached one milestone after another. In an exclusive interview with OOOM, the medical pioneer now reveals, for the first time, facts about a procedure that may not only fundamentally change medicine but also the lives of millions of people in wheelchairs: 
 
 The world’s first human head transplant will be performed within the next ten months. 
 
 The procedure will be performed in China. 
 
 Experienced surgeon Xiaoping Ren of Harbin Medical University, a close friend of Canavero, will lead the surgical team performing the head transplant. He previously was part of the surgery team in the first hand transplantation in the US. 
 
 The first head transplant patient will not be Russian Valery Spiridonov but a Chinese citizen. 
 
 There are already potential candidates for the operation. 
 
 Meanwhile, Prof. Canavero is already planning his next coup: the world’s first brain transplant, slated to take place in three years at the latest. He has already started to assemble a team for the procedure. 
 
 For this purpose, the creation of the first life-extension institute is already in planning – a facility in which such procedures could be conducted in the future. 
 
 Incredible results. Xiaoping Ren will announce the exact schedule for the head transplant procedure in a special press conference in China in the next two months. Many experiments have already been conducted and, according to Prof. Canavero, have yielded “incredible results, which will change the course of medicine.” Dr. Ren will publish his findings in leading medical journals in the near future. The world’s first head transplant reportedly poses far fewer surgical and medical obstacles than previously assumed. The duration of the procedure will allegedly be significantly shorter than 72 hours. “I can only congratulate my friend and colleague Xiaoping Ren; his accomplishment is a masterstroke,” says Canavero. In an exclusive interview with OOOM personally authorized by Prof. Canavero, he states – for the first time – the facts of the groundbreaking procedure. 
 
 XIAOPING REN. THIS SURGEON WILL LEAD THE FIRST HEAD TRANSPLANT PROCEDURE. 
 
 Professor Canavero, four months ago, the New York Time announced in a five-line paragraph that the world’s first head transplant would be conducted in December 2017 in the Chinese city Harbin. So far, this has not been confirmed. Are these reports correct? 
 
 Yes, they are correct. The world’s first human head transplant will be conducted in less than ten months. The Chinese team of doctors is led on site by Dr. Xiaoping Ren of Harbin Medical University, a close friend of mine and an extraordinarily capable surgeon. The operation will be conducted in Harbin. 
 
 What can you tell us concretely about the operation? 
 
 At present, nothing in detail. When the time comes, the official news will be announced by Xiaoping’s team in China. At the moment, I can only disclose that there has been massive progress in medical experiments that would have seemed impossible even as recently as a few months ago. The milestones that have been reached will undoubtedly revolutionize medicine. That much I can already say. We have just submitted the results of these studies for publication to renowned scientific medical journals, so we do not wish to preempt the upcoming publication. 
 
 If the world’s first head transplant will take place in China, then the Russian candidate Valery Spiridonov will not be the first patient on whom the operation will be conducted. 
 
 That is correct. The first patient will be Chinese. 
 
 THE NEW OOOM ISSUE 05/2017 
 
 Read the spring edition of OOOM for free online. ||||| Updated | Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has announced further details about the plan to carry out the world’s first head transplant surgery. In a turn of events, the operation will no longer be performed on Valery Spiridonov, a Russian man suffering from the muscle-wasting Werdnig-Hoffman's disease, with whom Canavero has been working for almost two years. 
 
 Instead, the operation will take place in China on a currently unselected Chinese national. A news release put out Thursday by OOOM, the media company handling Canavero’s press announced that Spiridonov, “who for a long period was considered for being the first transplant patient, will not be the first person whose head will receive a new body.” 
 
 It was unclear why Spiridonov was no longer involved. Georg Kindel, publisher & editor-in-chief of OOOM, tells Newsweek it was simply about where the surgery will be taking place. “Because the head transplant will be conducted in China it’s much easier to get a Chinese donor,” he says. “That’s the main reason. I’m not sure if Professor Canavero has talked to Valery in the meantime. I don’t know the reaction of Valery. However, if the head transplantation succeeds—and we all hope and are confident that it will succeed—then it will not be the last, so it will only be a question of time when Valery will get a new body.” 
 
 Canavero, in an interview with OOOM, said the first human head transplant will take place within 10 months. He did not specify a date for the surgery, but Kindel said the team is on track to carry it out at the end of the year: “They have a tight schedule but the team in China say they are ready to do it. Professor Canavero always said we will be ready at the end of 2017 and—if there is a strong power in China behind the project — it seems it definitely will be at the end of this year or the start of next year that the entire procedure will be conducted.” 
 
 At present, Canavero and Xiaoping Ren, of the Harbin Medical University in China, have presented little evidence to convince the scientific community their plan will be a success. Canavero previously has provided a brief outline of what they intend to do, but with relatively little detail of the steps involved. Research outlining experiments on animals have also failed to convince critics, many of whom say we are nowhere near having the technology required to undertake such a complex procedure. 
 
 In the press release, Canavero said they have several papers relating to head transplants that are currently under peer review and will appear in “renowned scientific medical journals”—although he did not specify which journals. “I can only disclose that there has been massive progress in medical experiments, which would have seemed impossible even as recently as a few months ago,” he said. “The milestones we have reached will undoubtedly revolutionize medicine.” 
 
 Asked about why Canavero and Ren are keeping their research such a closely guarded secret—something they have been criticized for in the past—Kindel said it is to do with the technologies they are developing: “Are these procedures that can be patented? If this is the case then it will be done,” he says. “It’s the same as with pharmaceutical companies. They conduct research for years and don’t publish anything, then at a certain stage they go out and inform the media and public.” 
 
 See all of the best photos of the week in these slideshows 
 
 Responding to criticism from other scientists, he added: “There are so-called experts who have no experience because they have never done this before. They say ‘no this will never happen.’ Canavero has just one goal—he says ‘I work on it. We have the scientists, the experts, the teams in the U.S., South Korea and China working it and when we are ready to inform the public, we will do it.’” 
 
 Several people working in the field have also criticized the scientists on the basis that if they have the technology to repair spinal cords—one of the key parts of the surgery—then they should be developing this to treat people who are paralyzed, instead of holding it back for a surgery many believe will not work. 
 
 “[Repairing the spinal cord] was part of the entire research for the head transplantation,” Kindel says. “At the beginning they were just trying their technique and thought, well maybe it works—but it does work. It was astonishing for the entire team. It’s just part of the entire process. And if it is the case they can help tetraplegics and paraplegics, then this is really a huge step forward in medicine.” 
 
 Kindel said he and the team know of no legal restrictions or regulations that would prevent them from carrying out the surgery. In China, surgeons are now waiting for journals to approve the studies they have submitted—after which point the findings will become public.“This is something that is completely new and could change medicine,” he says. “If this works—and all the studies seem to show it will work—then this is really a major step forward for medicine in general.” 
 
 Correction: This article previously referred to Michael Sarr, editor of the journal Surgery, as a neurosurgeon when he is a surgeon. The interviewee also referred to quotes previously made by Sarr which were incorrect. All references to Sarr have now been removed. ||||| The world's first human head transplant has allegedly been performed on a corpse in an 18 hour operation which successfully connected the spine, nerves and blood vessels of two people. 
 
 The operation was carried out by a team led by Dr Xiaoping Ren of Harbin Medical University, China, who last year successfully grafted a head onto the body of a monkey. 
 
 Italian Professor Sergio Canavero, Director of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, who has been working with the team, said they would 'imminently' move onto a living human who was paralysed from the neck down. 
 
 He told The Telegraph that electrical stimulation of the nerves proved the operation on the corpse had been successful, and that the... ||||| Neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero is in the news again, claiming to have performed the first successful human head transplant . But even cursory analysis reveals that he hasn’t. And scientific logic suggests he never will 
 
 In February 2015, Sergio Canavero appeared in this very publication claiming a live human head will be successfully transplanted onto a donor human body within two years. He’s popped up in the media a lot since then, but two years and nine months later, how are things looking? 
 
 Well, he’s only gone and done it! As we can see in this Telegraph story from today, the world’s first human head transplant has been successfully carried out. Guess all those more timid neurobods who said it couldn’t be done (myself included) are feeling pretty foolish right now, eh? 
 
 Well, not quite. Because if you look past the triumphant and shocking headlines, the truth of the matter becomes very clear, very quickly. In the interest of full disclosure, I do not know Dr Sergio Canavero, he’s done nothing to me directly that I’m aware of. However, I’m now seriously doubting his motivations. I’ve discussed my reasons for this elsewhere before now, but here they are again in one place for ease of reading. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Even the fictional Dr Frankenstein had a better success rate. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images 
 
 These “successful” procedures are anything but 
 
 Many of Canavero’s previous appearances in the media have been accompanied by claims of successful head transplant procedures. But, how are we defining “successful” here? Canavero’s definition seems to be extremely “generous” at best. 
 
 For instance, he recently claimed to have “successfully” performed a head transplant on a monkey. But did he? While the monkey head did apparently survive the procedure, it never regained consciousness, it was only kept alive for 20 hours for “ethical reasons” and there was no attempt made at connecting the spinal cord, so even if the monkey had survived long-term it would have been paralysed for life. So, it was a successful procedure, if you consider paralysis, lack of consciousness and a lifespan of less than a day as indicators of “success”. 
 
 There was also his “successful” rat head transplant, which involved grafting a severed rat head onto a different rat, a living one that still had its head. Exactly how this counts as a “transplant” is anyone’s guess. It’s adding a (functionally useless) appendage onto an otherwise healthy subject. 
 
 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. Maybe the procedure did make a good show of “attaching” the nerves and blood vessels on the broad scale, but, so what? That’s just the start of what’s required for a working bodily system. There’s still a way to go. You can weld two halves of different cars together and call it a success if you like, but if the moment you turn the key in the ignition the whole thing explodes, most would be hard pressed to back you up on your brilliance. 
 
 Perhaps the techniques used to preserve the heads and attach them have some scientific value, but it’s still a far cry from the idea of someone wandering around with a fully functional body that isn’t the one they were born with. 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. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest You’d expect copious details when it comes to performing a successful head transplant. Thus far, they’re strangely absent. Photograph: Alamy 
 
 The crucial details are strangely overlooked 
 
 The human body is not modular. You can’t swap bits around like you would Lego blocks, take a brick from castle and put it onto a pirate ship and have it work fine. There are copious obstacles to contend with when linking a head to body, even when they’re the same person’s. Doctors have, in recent years, “reattached” a severely damaged spinal cord in a young child, but the key-word is “damaged”, not “completely severed”; there’s enough connection still to work with, to repair and reinforce. And this is with a young child, with a still-developing nervous system better able to compensate. Even taking all this into account, and the advanced state of modern medicine, the successful procedure was considered borderline miraculous. 
 
 So, to attach a completely severed spinal cord, a fully developed adult one, onto a different one, one that’s maybe been dead for days? That’s, what, at least four further miracles required? And that’s not to take into account immune rejection, the fact that we don’t really know how to “fix” damaged nerves yet (let alone connect two unfamiliar halves) and the issue that everyone’s brain develops in tune with their body. The latter point means the “interface” between the two is relatively unique. You put the head of musician on the body of a builder, it may well prove to be like trying to play an Xbox game on a PlayStation. Except, infinitely more traumatic. 
 
 We don’t know for certain of course, because nobody has ever tried it. Canavero seems convinced he can do it, but thus far he’s offered no feasible explanation or science for his claims to be able to overcome these hurdles, beyond some token stuff about preserving tissues and ensuring blood supply during procedures. That’s a bit like someone claiming they can build a working fusion reactor and, when asked how, explains how they’re going to plumb in the toilets for the technicians. Arguably a useful step, but clearly not the main issue here. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest TED Talks. Slick, inspiring, interesting, not exactly peer-reviewed. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo 
 
 Hype before substance 
 
 I’ve said this before, even in a Wired article about Canavero’s previous claims, to the extent where I am considering trademarking it as “Burnett’s law”. Simply put; if someone’s making grand scientific claims but hasn’t provided robust evidence for them, yet they have done a TED talk, alarm bells should be ringing. 
 
 I don’t know what Canavero’s confidence is based on. Nobody seems to. He hasn’t published anything that would warrant it thus far. Note his recent “successful” human head transplant claims, which you can read about in the Telegraph before he’s published the actual results, as stated in the article. 
 
 Why do that? Why tell the newspapers before you tell your peers? If your procedure is rigorous and reliable enough, the data should reflect that. When scientists, particularly self-styled “mavericks”, court publicity but desperately avoid scrutiny, that’s never an encouraging sign. 
 
 Going by the Telegraph article, Canavero claims that the next step will be to attempt a transplant with someone in a vegetative state or similar. He also claims to have plenty of volunteers for this. Exactly how coma patients actively volunteered for this radical procedure is anyone’s guess. 
 
 There’s no mention yet of attempting it in a conscious person, despite there being actual volunteers for that. I strongly suspect there never will be. Trying it with a conscious, thinking person means it absolutely has to be 100% effective for them to remain in this state after the transplant is done. This would mean finding workable solutions to all the considerable obstacles presented by the very concept of a head transplant. 
 
 If I’m wrong about this then I’ll gladly take back everything and apologise, but nothing Canavero has said or done thus far leads me to think he has any idea about how to do this. 
 
 Dean Burnett is fully aware that the procedure should logically be called a “body transplant” but that’s not how it’s usually described, so has used the more common terms. His book The Idiot Brain is available now, in the UK and US and elsewhere. 
 
 
 
 
 

– The first step in what USA Today says would be an "audacious" therapy reportedly took place in China Friday: the world's first human head transplant, achieved with two corpses. And Sergio Canavero—the Italian doctor behind the alleged procedure, says he plans to do the same thing next on two brain-dead patients, followed by an "imminent" surgery with a living one, the Telegraph reports. Per Newsweek, Canavero described the procedure Friday at a Vienna press conference, explaining that his team had taken the head off one body and placed it on another, fusing the spine, blood vessels, and nerves. The procedure with a living patient is set to happen in China in December, mainly because the US and Europe refuse to host it. Medical experts say there haven't been enough studies or trials, and cite both ethical issues and the potential for "incredible pain." Mystery surrounds the living patient at the center of the storm, whose healthy head would be transferred to the disease-free body of a brain-dead patient—technically making this a "body transplant," not a head transplant, USA Today notes. That recipient was originally said to be 33-year-old Russian Valery Spiridonov, who suffers from a muscle-wasting disease. But an April release cited by Newsweek said a Chinese citizen would undergo the procedure, not Spiridonov, and the magazine on Friday quoted Canavero as saying a "high number" of people have volunteered. Canavero gives the procedure a 90% chance of success. Meanwhile, a Guardian columnist takes issue with Canavero's work. "The human body is not modular," writes Dean Burnett. "You can't swap bits around like you would Lego blocks." (Canavero, way back when this all started.)