Head start to this transplant

Robert White did an experiment on a monkey to prove that the brain could be revived once transplanted on another body. He did not want to keep the monkey alive. And the monkey did not die of rejection. There was no rejection. But White killed the monkey because the experiment was successful. So, it is not that the monkey died of rejection. The monkey died because Robert White killed it after proving that you can detach a head and attach it to another body. But White’s work is very important for me and will be put to good use in my own work.

Valery (the patient), the Russian boy, would of course be the first volunteer after experiments on cadavers or brain-dead or organ donors. The body will be supplied by a brain-dead person who suffered pure-head trauma or brain hemorrhage that kills the brain but leaves the rest of the body unscathed. So instead of taking out the heart, lungs and other body parts, we will just harvest the whole body.

You should know since you are in India, that there are Indian legends about gods exchanging their heads and bodies. I wrote about this in my first paper. So India probably had knowledge about the concept of head transplantation before anybody else.

This has nothing to do with spinal paralysis. To all my critics, including those in India, I say come to Annapolis (where Canavero will be presenting his head transplant technique at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons). I will address all technical questions there. There will be some very good news. But I cannot disclose more right now.

This procedure can be done anywhere, including in India. The Americans will be my first choice. I will go there in June and make a strong point and I am sure that this surgery would happen somewhere in America. But if it does not, we will do it most likely in China because the Chinese have already invited me. But let it be known that the surgery will happen.

Yes, we are in contact with Professor Ren. I have been studying Chinese for four years. He will be in Annapolis and we will stay in touch.

When you speak to Valery, just ask him to back up on his wheel chair; just look at him, and there is my answer to the question of ethics.

What applies to the head applies to all the other organs. The misuse is not something for me to answer. It is for you. As I told the New Scientist, I am just a technician, a mechanic. Your engine is broken, you come to me. I will try and fix it up. If the West does not want me to do it, I will not do it in the West. But, it will happen. Journalists like you have to make your readers aware that it is time to make a decision: either you want it or you don’t. Of course it will not be perfect in the beginning. But you have to start somewhere. DOWN TO EARTH