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Are We Ready for a Human Head Transplant? The Obstacles That Must Be Overcome

  • Controversies (V Gorantla and R Barth, Section Editors)
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Abstract

Purpose of Review

Saving an individual’s life by replacing his/her terminally diseased body with a healthy donor body would be an extraordinary scientific achievement. However, body-to-head transplantation (BHT) is neither a conventional proposal nor necessarily a logical “next step” in transplantation medicine. This review highlights the major hurdles standing in the way of performing human BHT.

Recent Findings

Recent human BHT publicity was initiated by Sergio Canavero’s TED talk “Head Transplantation: The Future Is Now” (At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EHCHv5u3O4) and a number of public interviews promising to perform the first human case by December 2017, despite little research and public discourse on this subject. Both are necessary in the development of innovative and perhaps paradigm-shifting surgeries.

Summary

Relatively little research has been conducted on BHT. This review discusses several major questions that have yet to be answered such as viability of spinal cord reconnection, immunological issues related to head-brain-body rejection, ethical and psychosocial issues posing questions regarding informed consent, and psychological consequences. The ethical, surgical, immunological, and psychosocial requisites to perform human BHT successfully are extraordinarily complex and at this time lack adequate experimental foundation.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Drs. Vijay Gorantla and Rolf Barth for reviewing this paper.

Funding

Professor Barker’s Professorship and research is funded in part by the Friedrichsheim Foundation (Stiftung Friedrichsheim) in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Professor Hardy’s research is funded in part by NIH 5T32H2007874-19 and the Zimmer Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Frankfurt Initiative for Regenerative Medicine, Friedrichsheim gGmbH, J.W. Goethe-University, Haus 97 B, 1OG, Marienburgstr. 2, 60528, Frankfurt/Main, Germany

    John H. Barker

  2. Auburn University, Haley Center, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA

    Allen Furr

  3. Department of Plastic Surgery and Burns, Burn Services, Face and Hand Transplantation Program, University Hospital Vall d’Hebron, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Juan P. Barret

  4. Department of Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, 161 Fort, Washington Ave., Herbert Irving Pavilion 5-549, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Mark A. Hardy

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  1. John H. Barker
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  2. Allen Furr
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  3. Juan P. Barret
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  4. Mark A. Hardy
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Correspondence to John H. Barker.

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Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Controversies

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Barker, J.H., Furr, A., Barret, J.P. et al. Are We Ready for a Human Head Transplant? The Obstacles That Must Be Overcome. Curr Transpl Rep 5, 189–198 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40472-018-0196-7

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