PIXABAY, SASINTItalian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero announced that the world’s first human head transplant—during which a recipient’s head will be attached to a donor’s body—will take place in China sometime within the next 10 months, according to a statement released last Thursday (April 27).
Canavero has been met with consistent backlash from the scientific and medical communities since he first outlined plans for this procedure in the journal Surgical Neurology International in 2013, where he proposed reconnecting severed nerve cell membranes using polyethylene glycol (PEG). For instance, Jerry Silver, a neurologist at Case Western Reserve University who was part of a team that rejoined severed spinal cord nerves in rats, told CBS News at the time that PEG technology is “light years away from what they’re talking about.”
In the news release, Canavero said he is encouraged by “incredible results” from recent and forthcoming publications. Last year, scientists were able to confirm with electrophysiology that transected spinal nerves in rats recovered following Canavero’s PEG protocol (though four out of ...
