VIDEO: THE FIRST HEAD TRANSPLANT MIGHT BE A BAD IDEA!

Sergio Canavero, a neurosurgeon of the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy, and a group of scientists are planning to perform the first human head transplant at the end of 2017. Dr Canavero is seeking fund to perform the head transplant to 31-year-old Russian patient Valery Spriridonov, who has a genetic muscle-wasting disease. The Italian doctor predicts a 90 percent plus chance of success, but other doctors are not so optimistic. 

Sergio Canavero also dubbed Dr Frankenstein, Canavero had first proposed the idea of transplanting a head onto someone else’s body in 2013. In 1970 America saw Robert White transplant heads on monkeys but was unable to restore the spinal function, the monkey who received the transplant died 9 days later. 

Here are 5 of the main obstacles scientists would have to overcome before doing such a transplant:

1. Heads can’t stay alive on their own.

2. The immune system has to be coaxed into accepting a foreign head.

3. The surgery has to happen in under an hour.

4. Spinal cords are incredibly tricky to merge.

5. The procedure has to work in animal trials before being done in humans.

Have a look at the video below to understand why some doctors think it is a bad idea, and Crystal Dilworth explains what the process of the surgery would be.