The world of surgeons is frightened by the impact given to the projects of Professor Sergio Canavero and his “head transplant” experiments, which can very quickly turn into a tragedy.
The criticisms are numerous and the answers unsatisfactory …
A good plumber … not yet an electrician
Experiments reported for weeks have in fact only shown the mastery of the connections of blood vessels, muscles and bones, which any surgical team has mastered for years. For the rest of the technique to be used, these are completely guesswork.
Restore motor skills… Not won!
Sergio Canavaro claims his grafted-headed dogs were frolicking after the interventions. And for good reason ! The starting head had remained in place and continued to direct the body. The 2e The head only worked because it was supplied with blood, which, as we have seen, is simple surgery. Creating this type of monster (which are euthanized within 24 hours) was already done, 50 years ago, by Russian surgeons.
Giving the human head motor control of the body means that the connections between the nerves are efficient. We know – for example in hand transplants – perfectly reconnect most nerve endings. But from there to tackle ALL connections assumed by a complete section of spinal cord, which is imperative in the reattachment between a head and a body, is like tackling the repair of a communications cable between France and the United States, with a knife, screwdriver and glue.
It is in this respect criminal to give insane hope to the thousands of quadriplegics who suffer. Fortunately, – without ad effects – many research teams are working on this subject patiently and without megalomania.
What about the life of the transplanted person?
We know, since the first grafts and transplants, that success is not due to the technical gesture and that the great surgeons speak with great modesty of the essential contribution of the anti-rejection treatment. In the case of a head transplant, we find ourselves in the total when it comes to anti-rejection drugs that must be effective for all types of tissues in the body. An immunological puzzle that, if solved, will make life difficult for whoever takes all of these drugs. Guaranteed side effects. Not to mention the pain that will probably be intolerable all over the body.
Transplantation and not graft
Just to be precise: Sergio Canavero talks about transplant; even if the transplant and transplantation are operations intended to replace an altered or deficient part of the human body with a healthy equivalent offered by a donor, transplantation is the term used to refer to the transplant of an organ such as the heart or the liver, while graft, means it is to talk about tissue, bone marrow or skin.
It is therefore a transplant that he is about to carry out.
In conclusion, the publicity given to this intervention does not solve most of the technical problems, and the promotion that the Italian surgeon makes of his method is felt, beyond the quarrels of technicians, as an ethical insult by his colleagues. It is probably for this reason that the experiments take place in the total opacity of Chinese medicine.
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