Right away, let me be clear that this post is not a joke. Science has advanced far enough that I can write this and it’s not a parody nor is it a treatment for a sci-fi body horror film.
Allow me to introduce you to 30-year old Russian man Valery Spiridonov, who you can see at the bottom of this post. Spiridonov suffers from a horrible illness by the name of Werdnig-Hoffmann, which is the most severe case of spinal muscular atrophy. He suffers from rapidly declining health and his disease has no cure or treatment. This is why he has volunteered for one of the most insane operations I’ve ever heard of. Doctors are planning a 36-hour operation, which will require the assistance of potentially up to 150 doctors and nurses, that will remove his head and install it onto another person’s body.
The operation was first, “…proposed two years ago by neuroscientist Sergio Canavero from the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group in Italy” (source). It was estimated to be a procedure that would first be attempted in 2017. However, Spiridonov volunteered, thus moving up the timetable.
Dr. Hunt Batjer, president elect of the American Association for Neurological Surgeons, is very worried about the operation, stating:
I would not wish this on anyone. I would not allow anyone to do it to me as there are a lot of things worse than death.
The fear is that once all of the difficult pathways are connected, such as the spinal cord and jugular vein, that the head will experience different chemistry than the body, which will descend the mind into insanity. Since this procedure has never before been done on a person, the type of insanity that might occur will be something unique and impossible to prepare for.
Director of medical ethics at New York University’s Langone Medical Centre Arthur Caplan added:
…[patients] would end up being overwhelmed with different pathways and chemistry than they are used to and they’d go crazy.
No matter what happens, it’s both incredible that science has come this far and terrifying to imagine what will actually happen.
