HUMAN HEAD TRANPLANT

HARUN YILDIZ

Introduction

I. The Concept of Human Head Transplant

II. Human Head Transplant (HHT) History

III. How Will It Be Done?

IV. Benefits of HHT

I. First Human Head Transplant

Switching heads sounds pretty "Frankenstein," for sure.

• It sounds like the plot from a horror movie, • but scientists believe a human head transplant

could soon become a reality.

The man leading the ambitious plan is Italian doctor Sergio Canavero.

Doctors will launch a project at a conference this summer. He will carry out the first procedure as soon as 2017.

Dog head transplant

• The first produces a two-headed animal.  Reportedly, a number of two-headed dogs were produced. Both heads could breathe and eat. But the dogs died in less than a month because of rejection issues with the transplanted head.

Monkey head transplant

• Similar experiments were done in monkeys, but the monkey’s own head was removed and the donor head attached, producing a one-headed animal.

First head transplant, 1970

• For this reason, actually• The first successful head transplant was carried out in

1970 in US.

• It was moved the head of one monkey on to another.

• The monkey lived for 9 days, but its immune system rejected the head. But the heads did function.

• But nobody knew how to connect the transplanted head to the spinal cord.

because

• In the HHT, another important topic is spinal cord. The greatest technical hurdle to such endeavor is of course the reconnection of the donor's and recipient's spinal cords.

SPINAL CORD:

to conduct motor and sensory information, to coordinate certain reflexes and central pattern generators

He first submited his idea in 2013.

He has some the major obstacles to surgery.

These include making the spinal cord with a new head, and ensuring the body's immune system does not reject it.

He believes head transplants could help people with degenerative muscle disease, widespread organ failure (total paralysis) and cancer sufferers.

• Dr Canavero plans to announce the project at the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons, US, in June.

• He published a paper with a theory on how he believes the operation could be carried out successfully this month.

HOW?

Firstly, because their cells can survive without oxygen, the recipient's head and the donor body are cooled.

Then, tissue around the neck is cut up and major blood vessels are linked using tiny tubes.

Next, the spinal cords are cleanly seperated, and then the recipient's head is moved onto the donor body.

Lastly, the ends of the spinal cord are combined using the chemical polyethylene glycol (PG ise special adhesive).

• After this, the person would be put into a coma for around 4 weeks while they heal.

• Dr Canavero believes the person would wake up with the same voice, move and feel their face and learn to walk within a year.

• He says several people have already volunteered.

• Some critics have critized Dr Canavero's project 'pure fantasy'.

• For Example, Dr. Jerry Silver, Case Western Reserve University neurologist "It's complete fantasy, that you could use [PEG technology] in such a traumatic injury in an adult mammal. This is bad science, this should never happen."

• But it is now more than 40 years since the first monkey head transplant

• and a similar operation on a mouse was recently successful in China.

Additionally

The operation is expected about $13 million..

Thanks for listening..

SOURCES

• http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/science/first-human-head-transplant-could-5233587 (headlines of article)

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/06/head-transplant-italian-neuroscientist_n_3533391.html (for video)