Experts say the technology needed for head transplants has been in operation for a 30-day coma after a massive surgery

Dr Canavillo that a head transplant would help a paralyzed patient like theoretical physicist Hawking.

Experts say the technology needed for head transplants has been in operation for a 30-day coma after a massive surgery

Dr. Canavillo, an Italian doctor, says the technology for human head transplants is already in place, and he also described in the science journal the steps to implement the procedure.

Dr Canavillo hopes to set up a team in 2017 to explore the feasibility of a "change of head" at a neurosurgeon meeting in the United States in June this year.

Guangzhou Daily News The progress of modern medicine may let "Liao Zhai Zhi yi" in the purpose of "change the head" to become a reality. According to the Daily Mail, an Italian doctor said "head transplant" surgery could become a reality in the next two years, a procedure that would help paralyzed patients regain their new life, but could also spark a great moral controversy.

Surgery costs up to 7.5 million pounds.

It is reported that the so-called "head transplant" surgery, refers to the direct transfer of the skull to another healthy body, the entire operation will cost 7.5 million pounds (about 72.96 million yuan). Dr. Sergio Canavillo, a surgeon from Turin, Italy, says this approach can help extend the lifespan of terminally ill patients or help patients with paralysis or muscular atrophy.

Critics say the surgery is a pure illusion. But Dr. Canavillo that all the necessary technologies exist, and now just put them into practice. 40 years ago, scientists succeeded in implementing a "head transplant" on monkeys. He hopes to set up a team to explore the feasibility of surgery in 2017 this June at a neurosurgeon meeting in the United States.

The patient will be unconscious for four weeks after surgery.

Dr. Canavillo the idea of "head transplant" surgery to New Scientist magazine. The new body will come from a donor who has a normal brain death. The doctor freezes the patient's head and donor's body, then cuts the patient's neck and associated blood vessels and spinal cords with a sharp surgical knife and moves to the donor body. To connect the brain and spinal cord with the new body, doctors use the chemical "polyethylene glycol" as a binder for "fusion".

After a patient enters a coma for four weeks, the muscles and blood supply are stitched together, allowing the head and body to become one. In this process, the doctor will give the patient a less intense "electric shock" to stimulate the spinal cord, strengthen the relationship between the head and the body.

When a patient wakes up from a coma, it probably takes a year of physical therapy to speak and move. Patients also need to take immunosuppressive drugs to inhibit the rejection of the new body.

There's a lot of moral controversy.

If the "head transplant" Operation succeeds, it will provide a way out for terminally ill patients, but the New Scientist magazine commented that the "beheaded" of the head would not survive, and that the "head transplant" operation was bound to lead to a great moral controversy. For example, if a patient has a child after recovery, the child belongs to the donor in biology because the egg or sperm comes from the new body. In addition, a new body can also bring huge psychological pressure on patients.

Dr Canavillo said the "head transplant" operation could only be performed on critically ill patients due to the lack of sufficient donors at the moment. But with the advancement of Medicine and the maturation of cloning, this operation can make healthy people live longer. A 60-Year-old can clone a young "copy" and transplant the head to a younger, healthier body.

William Mar Matthews, the American Academy of Neurology and Plastic surgeons, argues that Canavillo's "head transplant" concept is very advanced and may be applied to many medical fields, but it is not yet available. Connected）